Dr Kagoma has trained Ugandan medical specialists since 1994

Dr Peter Kagoma Kyambadde

The boy was seven years old when he first saw doctors in a hospital. His mother had taken him to Mulago hospital for his first set of eye glasses. That experience that lasted just a few hours impacted him for life.

The doctors wore immaculate white coats, walked briskly and smiled with a confidence that the boy had never seen. Everyone accorded them utmost respect not because they demanded it but because they just simply earned it. Immediately, he knew that he wanted to curve out a life for himself in this environment when he grew up.

From that point onwards, Peter Kagoma Kyambadde, for that was his name, would do everything in his power to get into that profession.

Early childhood
Kagoma was one of five children, born to peasant parents in Luweero District. His mother was widowed before Kagoma was seven years old. As such, she had the odious job of bringing up five children all on her own. While his mother had not gone to school, she was acutely aware of the importance of education. She encouraged and supported all her children to go to school and aspire to become professionals.

This spurred Kagoma to work extra hard at school. This and the fact that young Kagoma saw all the financial sacrifices that his widowed mother was making to make it happen.

But as providence would have it, young Kagoma scored so highly in his Primary Leaving Examinations that the government noticed.

“I was able to get a government bursary at St Henry’s College, Kitovu, in Masaka. The government paid my fees at both Ordinary and Advanced Level,” he says.

His scores were excellent at Advanced Level. And as a result, he was admitted to Makerere University to study medicine in 1975. At that time, if you were admitted at university, government paid. However, after one semester at MUK, he obtained a scholarship to continue Undergraduate studies at Cornell University in New York City.

He did a residency in internal medicine through Cornell Medical School and did a fellowship in haematology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, both based in New York City. In 1990, he completed his postgraduate studies in haematology at McMaster Medical School in Hamilton, Canada, and settled there.

The gratitude
Today, more than 40 years later, Kagoma still feels indebted to Uganda government. And to show gratitude, he has helped train scores of medical specialists as a way of giving back to the hand that gave.

Dr Kagoma is a clinical professor of medicine at McMaster University in Canada. He teaches medical undergraduates and postgraduates. On top of that, he practices medicine in three hospitals and various clinics in Ontario, Canada. He has been living in the diaspora since the mid-1970s.

When he left Uganda to receive specialist training as an internist and haematologist first in the US and later in Canada, Kagoma had expected to return at the end of his training. But by the time the training ended, Uganda was just coming out of political instability of the 1980s and there was just no way of telling if things would stay that way.

Training specialists
So as he settled down in Canada, he started building an initiative to improve the medical situation in Uganda that he knew so well. It pained him that there was an unmitigated shortage of medical personnel at all levels, especially in the countryside. But his biggest concern was the acute shortage of specialists.

Being unable to contribute in person as he now was, Kagoma chose to help train Ugandan medical specialists. In 1994, he launched the Uganda Hospital Project which would later be renamed International Outreach Program for Uganda (IOPU).

The initiative undertook training activities in the faculties of medicine at Makerere and Mbarara universities. In 1997, the scope was expanded beyond the two universities to include all present and future government medical schools in Uganda.

Dr Kagoma had used his connection as a don at McMaster to request the university to help train the Ugandan postgraduates and fellows. His programme, IOPU, was (and still is) the sponsoring agency responsible for the logistics of the programme.

In 2000, the formal training of Ugandan physicians was launched with the first two candidates. They were fresh-out-of-university doctors who were then trained to become specialists in internal medicine and anaesthesia. Prior to that, short trainings were carried out in Uganda medical schools by Canadian doctors.

150 specialists so far
To date, more than 150 graduates have returned from Canada and work in various institutions and other areas of health care and education in Uganda. Preference is given to candidates who are teachers in the Ugandan institutions and are, therefore, expected to continue their careers as teachers on completion of training. Thus, the programme trains a larger number of trainers of specialists, if you will.

He says, “Exposure to high technology medicine is one part of the training. But a bigger part is inculcating the trainees in the values of compassion, respect for the patients and their partnership in the delivery of their care that is embedded in the Canadian health care ethic.

“The training usually costs thousands of dollars for expatriates [like Ugandans] but it is offered free of charge for these Ugandans as part of McMaster’s support for international education. I am very grateful for McMaster University’s support as the program (IOPU) could not afford to pay the tuition required to train my countrymen,” he says.
While the university takes care of the training, another partner, St Joseph’s Health System covers the day-to-day costs like accommodation, food, upkeep, licensure in Canada, and other expenses.

The Ugandan medical schools on their part are responsible for getting the trainees to Canada. Appropriate documentation to apply for a visa, the cost of air tickets and everything in between is paid for by the Ugandan institutions.
Training is done on-site at McMaster University Medical School. The Canadian trainers often visit the Ugandan institutions during which they discuss achievements, resolve any issues and make plans for the future. All the trainers are volunteers, brought together by Dr Kagoma.

He says, “The program’s ability to provide hands-on training opportunities in an academic setting for Ugandans in Canada is what sets it apart from other training programmes. This is where the programme has been able to add the most value to the development of greater capacity within the Ugandan health system.”

Kagoma says, “For the first ten years, the specialties covered were general surgery, obstetrics & gynaecology, anaesthesia, internal medicine, and paediatrics. In the last ten years the focus shifted to the higher level of sub-specialty training and the areas of focus have been cardiology, intensive care, haematology, nephrology, dermatology, respirology, gastroenterology, geriatrics, psychiatry, orthopaedics and other areas.”

What motivates him
“During my schooling, I never forgot the poor level of healthcare available in Uganda, especially in the countryside where my family lived. My commitment was to become a doctor to help improve the situation. I felt that such a role would be satisfying to me and quite impactful for the patients I would care for,” he says.

“It is due to my experiences that I was compelled to start the Uganda programme. I have also tried to help those in need of education whom I come across whenever possible to enable them to succeed just as I have.”

Greatest achievement
“I believe my greatest achievement has been being married to a wonderful spouse for many years, raising our two great children. This is followed by my professional success as a specialist physician. Doing international health education with training Ugandan learners both in Uganda and in Canada also ranks high in view of the impact on patient services,” he says.

His wife and two grown children are all in the medical world. And every so often, they travel the world together for leisure. Forty countries and counting.