African Doctors Receive Subspecialty Training Through Newly Created Corporation 

Dr. Lawrason’s Support Allows Ugandan Doctors to Train at Waterbury Hospital

WATERBURY –Two physicians from the African country of Uganda will receive subspecialty training at Waterbury Hospital and Yale New Haven Hospital, thanks to the support of a tax-exempt corporation established by Jock Lawrason, MD, Chairman of the Department of Medicine at Waterbury Hospital and Chief Medical Officer of the Alliance Medical Group. 

The Yale-Mulago Medical Fellowship Corporation, created over a year and a half ago by Dr. Lawrason and his family, has teamed up with Mulago Hospital in Kampala, Uganda, in an effort to provide advanced training for physicians and other clinicians bringing badly needed care to patients across East Africa.   

Two Ugandan physicians -- Christopher Opio, MD, and Rejani Lalitha, MD -- began their training in October. While the program is associated directly with Yale University, much of the training that the two physicians will receive will take place at Waterbury Hospital. Majid Sadigh, MD, a Clinician Educator at Waterbury Hospital who is also Director of the Yale Global Health Office, will oversee their training at Waterbury Hospital.   

Dr. Sadigh said the newly created corporation will give Uanda and other East African countries access to some of the very best medical care to be found in the world today. Funding from the corporation is being used to cover living expenses for the physicians while they are training.    

“We’re very happy to be able to come here and bring this kind of specialized medicine back to our country,” Dr. Opio said, who is focusing his training on internal medicine and gastroenterology Dr. Lalitha is focusing her training on emergency medicine and intensive care medicine. 

Dr. Lawrason said the corporation has pledged to continue funding the program for the foreseeable future. For more information, please contact Dr. Sadigh at (203) 573-6246. 

Please see attached photo, from left: Rejani Lalitha, MD; Majid Sadigh, MD; Jock Lawrason, MD; and Christopher Opio, MD.
 

Waterbury Hospital is the largest private employer in the Greater Waterbury region, and serves a vital role in the economic vitality of Western Connecticut. It is a private, non-profit acute care teaching hospital licensed for 367 beds and affiliated with the Yale School of Medicine, the University of Connecticut School of Medicine and Connecticut Children’s Medical Center. Founded in 1890 as Waterbury’s first and Connecticut’s fourth hospital, Waterbury Hospital is a full-service community health-care institution with centers of excellence in primary care, cardiac services, behavioral health and orthopaedics.