Dr. Janis P. Tupesis joining GHI leadership

Global health education and development occurs across the learning spectrum, from undergraduate programs to care provided by career professionals. As such, the Global Health Institute (GHI) is pleased to announce that Dr. Janis P. Tupesis, emergency medicine physician and current chair of the Graduate Medical Education (GME) Global Health Oversight Committee for UW Hospitals and Clinics, will be serving as the GHI-GME Liaison.

“We’re thrilled that Dr. Tupesis is willing to formally serve as a liaison between GHI and the Graduate Medical Education global health programs,” says Dr. Christopher Olsen, GHI acting director. “This is a win-win that recognizes the many existing interfaces between the activities of UW-Madison’s GHI and UW Hospital and Clinic’s GME global health experiences. Going forward, it ensures continued collaboration between all our learners and scholars.”

GHI connects colleagues and communities, on campus, in Wisconsin and across the world, to advance sustainable global health. Through advocacy, education, research and financial awards, GHI supports and catalyzes initiatives that address the root causes of disease and strengthen health care systems.

The UW Hospital and Clinics GME program gives residents and fellows the opportunity to broaden their professional skills by working with respected health professionals locally and globally. Tupesis is director of Global Health Programs and director of Academic Affairs in the Department of Emergency Medicine in the UW School of Medicine and Public Health.

GHI Advisory member Janis Tupesis (left) spent eight years helping Liberia develop emergency medicine, including working with residents who learned to work with few resources.
GHI Advisory member Janis Tupesis (left) spent eight years helping Liberia develop emergency medicine, including working with residents who learned to work with few resources.

Tupesis sees himself as a bridge between GHI and GME. “What we can do is better align GHI’s clinical, research, education and quality improvement programs with the activities of the 600 residents and fellows at the hospital and clinics,” Tupesis says. “It just makes so much sense on both sides. GHI, the GME office and all the residency programs will benefit by this relationship.”

Tupesis served as director of the Department of Emergency Medicine’s Residency Program from 2009-2014, overseeing the program’s initial accreditation and expansion to its current form. He has helped build an emergency medicine residency program at Addis Ababa University/Black Lion Hospital in Ethiopia and helped establish a fledgling emergency medicine and residency program in Liberia prior to the Ebola outbreak. He is also part of a group that recently received funding from the Paul G. Allen Foundation to provide Ebola relief in Liberia and to help rebuild the health care and health education systems.

By Ann Grauvogl/ March 30, 2015