The College of Health Sciences is the pioneer and leading medical training institution in Kenya. Graduates include medical doctors, pharmacists, nurses, dentists and biological scientists at all levels of training upto post doctorate levels. Allied science students of the adjacent Kenya Medical Training Centre (KMTC) also benefit from various graduate programmes offered through the College. The following are some of the key college accomplishments;
- Human Resources for Health
To date the College has graduated 14,086 students, some who hold some of the most distinguished positions in public and private sectors both locally and internationally. The College has a highly qualified complement of staff and represents the highest concentration of healthcare trainers in the region. Most academic staff are specialists in their fields many of whom are internationally recognized. The College has high calibre professionals who provide consultancy services to both private and public organisations. The College also houses the largest medical school in Kenya. The Schools of Pharmacy, Dental Sciences, Public Health, KAVI-Institute of Clinical Research, UNITID and EAKI and are the premier institutions of their kind in the country as well. Accordingly, the College has gained a reputation as one of the best training centres in Africa. Additionally, the College has numerous alumni in strategic and influential positions nationally and internationally. Potential clients include government ministries, local industry, non-governmental organisations and other international agencies.
Diverse and specialized academic programmes
The College offers numerous programmes at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels in medicine, pharmacy, nursing, dentistry, public health and basic biomedical sciences. It has the highest output of both undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in health sciences within the region.
2. Advances and Innovation
(2a). Medical Advances
Key milestones have been achieved through the medical and research teams from the College. For example, the department of Surgery and Kenyatta National Hospital successfully separated conjoined twins and also successfully re-implanted a hand of a 17-year boy that had been chopped off accidentally. The successful operations were some of the most complex procedures to be done successfully in sub-Saharan Africa. This complex surgery comprised of multidisciplinary team of medical specialists in paediatric surgery, neurosurgery, plastic and reconstructive surgery, anaesthetists and nurses. This endeavours caught the eyes of President, Uhuru Kenyatta who on his behalf and the Government, congratulated the medical team for the outstanding work and even went ahead to fete the team leaders with the State commendations.
(2b) Research and Innovation
The College engages in biomedical, social behavioural research which attracts the largest research funding to the University and our research portfolio is about KES one billion per year. Notable among the research projects are those involved in HIV/AIDS which have gained international recognition. The School of Medicine houses KAVI-ICR which is a centre of excellence in clinical research with state of the art and world class laboratories and equipment including a state of the art Deconvolution microscope, the first of its kind in sub-Saharan Africa. The School of Pharmacy houses Drug Analysis and Research Unit (DARU) which is actively involved in pharmaceutical research. At UNITID, the ultra-modern Level III laboratory has been built to cater for emerging pathogens especially the viral hemorrhagic fevers. This facility is the third of its kind in Africa.
3. Globalization- Collaborations and Linkages
The College is also well known for its research capability, attracting many collaborations and linkages with Universities within the country, Africa, North America, Europe, Middle East, Continental Asia, and Australia. These include Universities of: University of KwaZulu Natal (Durban SA), Manitoba (Canada), Oxford (United Kingdom), Ludwig-Maxmilan (Munich, Germany), Kanazawa (Japan), Washington (Seattle, USA), Maryland (Baltimore, USA), Northwestern University (Chicago, USA), Texas (USA Ghent (Belgium), Siena (Italy).. All these institutions have various research studies/trials in collaboration with local researchers.
4. Big Four Agenda:
The College is making major contribution in the realization of the Big four Agenda sent by the Kenyan Government. The training of students, researchers, scientists and other healthcare professionals contributes in the provision of the Universal Healthcare Coverage (UHC) which is one of the pillars of the Big four agenda. The discovery of novel vaccine and drug candidates as well as novel medical devices and interventions will eventually lead to the local manufacturing of healthcare products boosting the manufacturing arm of the Big Four agenda.
5. Infrastructure
(a) The College has three centres of excellence which act as global hubs of research, teaching and innovations. These Centres are East Africa Kidney Institute, KAVI-Institute of Clinical Research and University of Nairobi Institute of Tropical and Infectious Diseases (UNITID).
(b) Teaching, Research and Learning facilities The College has modern teaching and research facilities. Teaching is also conducted at satellite clinical sites supported by teleconferencing, e-learning and e-medicine.
(c) Office of Research Grants and Advancement and Support (ORGAS): Through the ORGAS, the college has increased the number of successful proposals by closely monitoring the pre-award activities pertaining to call opportunities, maintaining an accurate and easily retrievable record of the grants projects, their milestones, financials and other non-financial information and enhance tracking and communication of any project grant documentation to all stakeholders.
(e) Nairobi Surgical Skills Laboratory: Nairobi surgical skills center, housed at the department of Human Anatomy. This is an initiative of the University of Nairobi in partnership with Johnson and Johnson (PTY) Limited and Phillips Healthcare Technologies. The center, the first of its kind in Sub Saharan Africa is geared to training surgical practitioners’ good surgical skills.
