University Hospitals Roe Green Center for Travel Medicine & Global Health and Health Services Research Center Build Greater Capacity in Africa to Help Tiny Babies Survive and Thrive

UH Research & Education Institute

The University Hospitals Health Services Research Center and the UH Roe Green Center for Travel Medicine & Global Health are dedicated to improving healthcare, not only in Northeast Ohio but around the world. Together they are sponsoring the fifth annual “Tiny Feet, Big Steps: Advancing Care of Critically Ill and Premature Babies in Africa” Neonatology Conference in Arusha, Tanzania this November 3–8. The event is the flagship conference for the Institute for Child Healthcare Africa.

This one-of-a-kind week-long conference aims to improve the survival rates and care of vulnerable neonates by enhancing the education and practical clinical skills of healthcare professionals in Africa and other low- and middle-income countries. Last fall, the two UH Centers jumped at the opportunity when Stephen J. Swanson, MD, DTM&H, FAAP, Founder and Chair of Tiny Feet, Big Steps Conference, invited them to collaborate and support Africa's largest clinical neonatology capacity-building conference.

“We intend to foster the development of a well-rounded neonatal care skill set required in African hospitals, adopting a low-technology, evidence-based approach to neonatology,” says Dr. Swanson.

The Tiny Feet, Big Steps conference embodies a philosophy of co-training physicians and nurses together, nurturing the next steps in hospital-based neonatal care. Topics and workshops are contextualized to the unique challenges faced within African and other resource-limited healthcare settings to maximize their clinical impact

Honoring University Hospitals' Longstanding Commitment to Improving Human Health Across the World

The UH Roe Green Center for Travel Medicine & Global Health was a primary co-sponsor of the 2024 conference, reflecting Northeast Ohio philanthropist Roe Green's vision of improving human health around the world through outreach and education.

A major highlight of the week-long conference was the Roe Green Banquet Dinner, attended by physicians and nurses decked out in the bright splashes of color of traditional outfits from their home countries. This glamorous affair was fully sponsored by the UH Roe Green Center for Travel Medicine & Global Health and allowed participants to let their hair down and celebrate their hard work and meaningful achievements in their hospitals. Moving and inspiring stories were shared about improvements made at individual hospitals based on what was shared at previous conferences, underscoring the real-world application of knowledge gained through these annual capacity-building events. Presenters represented institutions from Burundi, Ethiopia, Ghana, Haiti, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. Attendees interspersed learning about innovations that could be adopted in their settings with joyfully dancing the night away to live music with new and old friends from across the globe.

Since 2021, this flagship conference has trained 657 healthcare professionals from 159 hospitals spread across 20 African countries, as well as physicians and nurses from seven non-African countries. In 2024, 292 individuals attended, including physicians, nurses, instructors and sponsors. Conference attendees represented 110 hospitals and academic institutions from 17 African and five non-African countries. The African countries were Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda and Zimbabwe. A multidisciplinary team of 50 neonatologists, pediatricians, neonatal nurses, surgeons, allied health professionals and neonatal researchers were instructors at the conference, representing 40 academic institutions spanning 14 countries.

Samudragupta Bora, PhD.

Along with the UH Roe Green Center for Travel Medicine & Global Health, the UH Health Services Research Center was a co-sponsor of the conference, allowing the organizers to provide scholarships to nearly all attendees, with 60% receiving at least 70% of total attendance expenses. “As a research center dedicated to excellence in healthcare delivery science, this was an excellent way to demonstrate our support in a small way while also communicating the message that we truly care about ensuring the delivery and accessibility of high-quality clinical care around the world,” says Samudragupta Bora, PhD, Founding Director of UH Health Services Research Center and Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Case Western Reserve University.

This November, the Tiny Feet, Big Steps conference is expected to draw attendees from more than 20 African countries. Three-day training conferences are also currently being planned for Ethiopia in December 2025 and Uganda and Ghana in 2026, to train physicians and nurses who are unable to attend the flagship conference in Tanzania. As in previous years, one of the key outcomes of this year’s conference will be the strengthening of mentoring relationships formed between professionals from well-resourced institutions and those in resource-constrained settings.