Barrow Global Neurology
At a Glance: Barrow Global Neurology
Barrow Global Neurology in South Africa builds on a nearly 17-year collaboration between Dr. Racette and colleagues at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa; the continent’s sixth-most populous country. Through a bidirectional partnership with the university, we’ve developed a unique, scalable global model for education, clinical service, and research with an initial focus on building capacity in epilepsy, stroke, and neurocritical care.
Our approach involves providing fellowship training at Barrow Neurological Institute to international fellows from the University of the Witwatersrand Department of Neurology. These global fellows will return to South Africa and become catalysts for the development of in demand neurology specialty care. Barrow will also dispatch hand-selected neurology residents to two enriching global education experiences to help underscore our commitment to an exchange of global knowledge.
International Neurology Fellowships
In addition to research-focused postdoctoral fellowships, there are eight clinical international fellowship opportunities in South Africa. Fellows will return to the region and will be mentored by their respective fellowship director as they develop critically valuable subspecialty neurology clinical programs.
- Behavioral Neurology and Neuropsychiatry
- Epilepsy and Clinical Neurophysiology
- Clinical and DBS Movement Disorders
- Neuroimmunology and Multiple Sclerosis
- Neuromuscular Medicine
- Neuro-Otology and Balance Disorders
- Traumatic Brain Injury and Sports Neurology
- Vascular Neurology
Experiencing South Africa as a Barrow Global Resident
Barrow residents will have the opportunity to train in either the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto, South Africa, or the Tintswalo Hospital for two one-month-long global education experiences. Representing contrasting training environments—one urban and the other rural—these two hospitals offer invaluable educational settings for Barrow residents.
Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital stands as the third-largest hospital globally, boasting over 3,500 beds, while Tintswalo Hospital serves the same region as the 130,000-person research cohort, spanning over 30 rural African villages. This global neurology experience not only addresses the crucial need for neurologic services in underserved African communities, but also provides Barrow residents with a deeper understanding of the diverse practices of neurologists around the world.
Research
Barrow Global Neurology in South Africa and Ethiopia provides several unique research experiences for trainees to develop global neuroscience research careers in neuroepidemiology, in conjunction with our partnering institution, the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits).
Dr. Racette’s environmental health research spans from studies of manganese miners in the Northern Cape Province (MINERS) to the impact of air pollution on community health in Meyerton, South Africa (SMELTER). The overarching theme of these studies is the impact of environmental exposures on marginalized workers and communities.
In northern South Africa, trainees can work on research projects imbedded in the Agincourt cohort in Mpumalanga province. The Agincourt Health and Socio-demographic Surveillance System (HDSS) provides the foundation for the Wits Agincourt Research Unit. In the early 1990s, the Health Systems Development Unit at Wits created the Agincourt HDSS to develop district healthcare systems, subdistrict healthcare centers, and referral systems, and to train clinically oriented primary care nurses. The Agincourt HDSS database contains data from the exhaustive coverage of demographic events within a geographically defined population in the Agincourt area of the Bushbuckridge subdistrict of Mpumalanga. This unique resource offers our trainees the opportunity to engage in research projects in nearly any neurologic disease, mentored by both Wits and Barrow faculty.
Observers
Each year, visiting scholars from the University of the Witwatersrand will spend up to four weeks at Barrow Neurological Institute observing a Department of Neurology program. Visiting candidates will be selected based on the area of most need and impact at their partner site.
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