For the Department of Neurology at the Indiana University School of Medicine, global health isn’t measured by miles. Instead, as Katie Hutchins, MD, explains, it’s rooted in partnership, education and a shared commitment to building equitable systems of clinical care.
“Global health often gets put in the context of having to go to another country,” Hutchins said, “but I think of it as practicing medicine across all contexts to achieve universal health equity, ensuring excellent clinical outcomes for every patient, regardless of what their situation may be or where they are from.”
This philosophy took shape for Hutchins four years ago after spending a month working alongside Jamil Said, MD, at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret, Kenya, as part of Academic Model Providing Access to Healthcare (AMPATH).
IU School of Medicine is the founding U.S. partner and consortium leader of AMPATH Kenya, a globally praised, large-scale, community-based program that is dramatically improving population health in western Kenya through research, training and delivery of health care services.
A graduate of Moi University School of Medicine, Said completed internal medicine training in 2018 before pursuing neurology. When Aga Khan University announced the first neurology training program in East Africa in 2022, Said applied and became its first graduate in 2025.
With the help of Hutchins, Neurology Chair Laurie Gutmann, MD, and IU Center for Global Health, Said then participated in a nine-month fellowship last year at IU School of Medicine, expanding his training in subspecialty areas like neurophysiology, neuroradiology and neuro-ophthalmology — opportunities that were difficult to access at home.
“We had our first Zoom meeting, and after that, it was a domino effect,” Said said of the first time he connected with Hutchins through AMPATH. “I learned so much from being at IU — not just the clinical tools, but also how teams collaborate, how education is structured. What we are building here is informed by that experience, but it belongs to this community.”
Building global health pathways for trainees
During the month-long elective in Eldoret as a resident, Hutchins evaluated complex neurological cases alongside Kenyan colleagues. With a catchment area of nearly 25 million people, Hutchins said Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital sees a breadth of pathology that many U.S. trainees only get to encounter in textbooks.
“That initial experience was so impactful that I’ve gone back to Kenya every year, sometimes twice a year, since,” Hutchins said.
Since joining the Department of Neurology as an assistant professor of clinical neurology in 2023, Hutchins has been committed to giving other neurology residents the same transformative opportunities she had with AMPATH.
She serves as the team leader for the department’s global neurology program, working alongside other universities within the AMPATH Consortium. In addition to training IU residents during their rotation in Eldoret, Hutchins also leads a monthly virtual neurology lecture series for Kenyan residents, supplementing their curriculum and ultimately strengthening academic exchange.
“We’re coming from a different place and don’t fully know the local context, so we try to approach the experience with cultural humility — asking questions, staying open and learning while we’re there. The goal isn’t to fix things or ‘save the day.’ It’s about learning, collaboration and partnership,” Hutchins said. “We also emphasize to residents that this is our Kenyan colleagues’ program, and we’re fortunate to be invited to join them. While we can share knowledge from our training, they understand the system, the patients and the diseases in their community.”
Amanda Arand, DO, MS, is a recent graduate of the adult neurology residency program who traveled to Eldoret three times. Each trip has shaped both her clinical and personal growth.
“I worked in global health prior to medical school as a Peace Corps volunteer, so the subject has always been near and dear to my heart,” said Arand, who completed her medical training at Marian University College of Osteopathic Medicine. “I always feel like I’m a beneficiary of global health. Experiencing not just health conditions that we wouldn’t see here in Indianapolis, but different cultures and languages and personalities — it’s a very humbling experience.”
In addition to presenting their own lectures, IU residents also attend Global Health Talks hosted by AMPATH staff. The lecture series focuses on different aspects of medicine and neurology subspecialities from a global context, Hutchins said.
“We often learn about diseases using research and evidence from higher-income countries, which doesn’t always reflect the challenges in lower- and middle-income settings,” Hutchins said. “These lectures offer a broader perspective on how approaches to diagnosing and treating diseases can look different around the world.”
From working alongside Kenyan colleagues, Arand has learned to approach care collaboratively, ensuring patients and their families feel empowered to ask questions.
“I think a big part of caring for patients in cultures you didn’t grow up in is recognizing the power imbalance between patients and providers. In some places, like Kenya, that can be even more pronounced, so when a doctor makes a recommendation, patients may feel like they simply must agree,” Arand said. “We try to take time to explain options, talk through what might happen and ask patients to describe in their own words what they understand. The goal is to create a dialogue rather than just telling them what to do, and to better understand their perspective, resources and experiences with the health system.”
Arand has carried these lessons into her interactions with patients in Indianapolis.
“I think that, in our profession, it’s really important to let patients know that they’re not just part of the conversation,” Arand said, “they’re the head of the conversation.”
Redefining the future of neurology
The need for neurological expertise in Kenya is staggering, Said noted. Only about 20 neurologists work in the country, and the clinics at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret alone see an average of 80 patients in a single day.
Despite the challenges, Said remains optimistic, thanks to the partnerships with AMPATH and IU colleagues.
“I call it frontier neurology,” he said. “It’s messy, but within that chaos is an opportunity to look at things outside the box and shape things up without the biases that pre-exist because there’s nothing that exists. There is some basic foundational infrastructure, but the rest is an opportunity to redefine the narrative of clinical care in Kenya.”
That spirit fuels Hutchins’ and Said’s shared vision.
In addition to strengthening consult services and expanding outpatient clinics at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital, the neurology team is developing patient registries to better understand stroke patterns and other neurological diseases. They also hope to expand neurology training opportunities in Eldoret.
“We can’t just walk across the Atlantic, so the real impact comes from keeping the connections and conversations going,” Said said, emphasizing that he believes the most important part of global health is sustainability. “It takes a lot of patience to maintain that long-term vision through every challenge, but that’s what makes the work truly rewarding.”
