Dr Edwin Mogere is a full time faculty neurosurgeon, assistant professor and programme director, Department of Surgery, Aga Khan University East Africa. After his Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery degree (MBChB), he was among the first cohort of surgical trainees at Aga Khan University Hospital Nairobi (AKUHN).
Dr Mogere went on to specialise in neurosurgery at the University of Cape Town, obtaining his Fellowship of the College of Surgeons (FCS) in Neurosurgery in May 2013 and then undertook an 18-month fellowship in cerebrovascular, endovascular and skull base surgery at the same university.
He returned to Kenya in 2015 to take up his faculty position at AKUHN. His clinical focus is cerebrovascular neurosurgery including acute stroke, endovascular interventions and complex skull base procedures. Dr Mogere shares with us his journey and his views on the current surgical training programme.
Dr Mogere, what does the programme director do?
Well, the Programme Director is the custodian of the postgraduate academic programme in each department. The Programme Director works under the Chair to ensure the faculty and residents are delivering on the agenda for the department as agreed with the University.
What are the challenges you commonly face?
The greatest challenge is managing individuals who are driven, independent-minded, intelligent and accomplished. In addition, there are significant administrative duties that needs to be handled over and above the usual clinical role of the faculty.
What are the new things we should expect in the department?
We anticipate a sustained rise in tempo in the academic delivery to the residents and look to ensure that we are improving on all fronts. We are also looking forward to more research oriented departmental initiatives. The appointment of new faculty as well as the commencement of new residency programmes is also in the pipeline.
Exciting stuff! How can the residents get the most out of the current programme?
I would urge all our residents to apply themselves to their schedules. This is a relatively small programme with a large faculty to resident ratio that I feel is not utilized fully. It behooves the residents to aspire to excellence as a habit, and indeed I am encouraged at the performance I have witnessed from the resident body recently. I am keen to see them, with the help of faculty, reach for the stars and achieve their dreams. They are capable of a lot more than they think.
I am sure the residents appreciate the vote of confidence. I hear we are switching to a five-year curriculum for residents?
This will probably require a much longer discussion, but in brief we are moving to specialty-based surgical training. This shift is not just at the Aga Khan University but is actually occurring across surgical training in Kenya and the region. As opposed to providing 'surgery in general' training, we aim to train General Surgery specialists first and then move to Orthopaedics, Urology, Paediatrics and so forth over the coming years.
It is accepted worldwide that surgical specialty training ought to proceed through a Basic Surgical Training generic to all specialists lasting 2 years or so, and then higher surgical training in the chosen specialty lasting between 36-42 months. This would culminate in an external exit assessment to mark completion of training in the form of a standardized collegiate level evaluation. We have just commenced that journey and we hope to align ourselves with this training process prevalent in many jurisdictions and colleges worldwide.
How can faculty help to support these initiatives?
I think the faculty have a most important role as the vehicles of delivery of surgical learning and as mentors to the residents throughout this process. Mostly, we humbly request for their buy-in and take ownership of the common vision and mission we have set as a department. The curriculum is quite ambitious and we hope that the faculty will give it life by delivering education to residents in a way that builds and nurtures them.
As a matter of fact, the aim is that the product of that collaboration, the specialist surgeon, should be at least as good as, if not better than the concerned faculty. We will consider ourselves ultimately successful in our role as faculty when our residents make us redundant! We are thankful that the new faculty have bought into this vision and hope to have them rally even more around this programme as it continues to improve. I hope that this education process will provide satisfactory and fulfilling academic careers for our faculty as well.
What help would you need from the other AKU teams and departments?
We are among the largest academic programmes and work closely alongside many other departments in both clinical and non-clinical areas. These critical peer-to-peer collaborations are some of AKU’s strongest attributes in delivering quality clinical care in Kenya and the region. The hospital and university administrative structures have always been supportive to the programmes in the past. We can only state that there is yet more room for synergies in efforts as we pursue the academic agenda as part of the Faculty of Health Sciences at AKU.
Deeper collaborations in both academic and clinical pursuits will serve the residents, the faculty, the university and the nation very well indeed and it is more beneficial to develop a culture of excellence as a habit collaboratively, rather than in our individual areas. In line with that, the departmental research committee is currently reaching out to faculty both within AKU and in other hospitals to forge these partnerships.
What do you feel are the best moments for a programme director?
That's easy... when conferring the MMed in the convocation ceremony to your former residents, now consultants, and you quietly reflect on their various journeys from when you first interviewed them, moments in their residencies and to see them stand as fully qualified surgeons - it's a thing of wonder! A close second is when you meet your former trainees in various positions and places doing wonderful work and are happy doing so too, and reflect on the joy of having been a part of the effort that nurtured them.
Tell us something that many people may not know about you?
I love snorkeling and I'm crazy about rugby. Crusaders for the 3rd year running!
I should have guessed the rugby thing from your size, and isn't snorkeling just a boring form of scuba diving for those who are scared or can’t swim? Thanks for sharing anyway. Last thoughts?
I am grateful to my residents, who are always pleasantly surprising me and often inspire me. I have the highest expectations for them and wish them all that is good in their career paths. To my faculty colleagues, thank you so much for doing a lot even without much recognition, always at hand to assist in running the department activities and doubling up as my support network. You all know who you are. Asanteni. And to our Chair of Surgery - you motivate and galvanise us! Thank you.
