A critical component of building capacity in Liberia’s physician workforce involves strengthening the country’s only medical school, A.M. Dogliotti College of Medicine. Beginning in 2015, senior health sector stakeholders in Liberia invited faculty and staff from U.S. academic institutions and non-governmental organizations to join a partnership focused on improving undergraduate medical education in Liberia. Over the subsequent six years, the members of this partnership came together through an iterative, mutual-learning process and created what William Torbert et al describe as a “community of inquiry,” in which practitioners and researchers pair action and inquiry toward evidence-informed practice and organizational transformation. This community of inquiry developed around a few key institutional and interpersonal relationships but expanded over time. Incorporating faculty, practitioners, and students from Liberia and the U.S., the community of inquiry consistently focused on following the vision, goals, and priorities of leadership in Liberia, irrespective of funding source or institutional affiliation. The work of the community of inquiry has incorporated multiple mixed methods assessments, stakeholder discussions, strategic planning, and collaborative self-reflection, resulting in transformation of M.D. education in Liberia. We suggest that the community of inquiry approach reported here can serve as a model for others seeking to form sustainable, international global health partnerships focused on organizational transformation.

To explore the professional knowledge, experience, goals, and self-assessed competencies of 5th-year medical students, AMD alumni, and other practicing physicians in and around Liberia, U.S. academic faculty developed a survey instrument, which was reviewed and revised by AMD faculty and administrators. Survey responses were offered on a five-point Likert scale. A separate section of the survey presented the current AMD curriculum, asking AMD alumni to assess its relevance to training future physicians for the practice of medicine and to determine whether each course had been delivered in a manner that AMD alumni felt was either adequate or inadequate. This survey was developed to capture a wide range of data related to physician training and pipeline development in Liberia. Results relevant to undergraduate medical education and curriculum revision at AMD are presented here. A research team comprised of Liberian and U.S. faculty and staff administered the survey on paper to 124 respondents, which included final-year medical students and physicians including interns, residents, and faculty, and then inputted the survey data into REDCap electronic data capture tools hosted at Vanderbilt University. REDCap (Research Electronic Data Capture) is a secure, web-based software platform designed to support data capture for research studies. Data are presented as summary statistics.