Rwandan Research Fellowship

National Institute On Minority Health And Health Disparities

Investigators

Abstract

For FY21, Dr. Marie Consolatrice Sage Ishimwe was the 5th NIMHD-NIDDK-Rwandan physician fellow. Her NIH fellowship training was from July 2020 - July 2021. In addition to being a physician she had a Master of Public Health and possessed infectious and non-infectious diseases epidemiologic skills. During her year at NIH, she completed courses offered through FAES and the NIH Library and received training on biostatistics, research methods, manuscript writing, oral presentations, and clinical training in the Section on Ethnicity and Health. She published two articles. The first article was about the social and cultural determinants of cardiometabolic health in African Immigrants. For the second article, she took the lead position and reported that the major cause of both diabetes and prediabetes in African-born Blacks living in the United States was beta-call failure rather than insulin resistance. This is potentially a paradigm shifting publication. If additional studies confirm that beta-cell failure is more prevalent than insulin resistance in Africans, then screening protocols, screening tests and initial treatment need to be adjusted to be effective. For FY22, Dr. Marie Grace Duhuze Karera has been selected as the 6th NIMHD-NIDDK-Rwandan physician. Her NIH fellowship training will be from July 2021 - July 2022. She is a physician dedicated to improving public health. In 2020 she completed a Masters in International Health at the University of Leeds, England. At NIH ,under the supervision of Dr. Anne Sumner, she will receive training in setting up and running clinical investigations relative to the detection and prevention of diabetes in Africans. Her clinical work will be supplemented with FAES and NIH Library course in biostatistics, epidemiology, IRB regulations and policy and grant writing.