MUHIMBILI University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS) plans to establish a cardiac hospital on its Mloganzila Campus, as part of its vision to establish centres of excellence in various fields.
The plan is part of the implementation of the East Africa Centre of Excellence in Cardiovascular Sciences (CoECVS) phase two.
MUHAS Acting Vice-Chancellor Prof Appolinary Kamuhabwa revealed this in Dar es Salaam on Thursday during the University’s 11th scientific conference.
“MUHAS continues to build and expand its physical teaching and research environment; as of right now, CoECVS’s first phase of construction is finished and operational. Phase two of the project is now being implemented,” he said.
CoECVS is part of wider East Africa Community (EAC) centres of excellence for skills and tertiary education in the Biomedical Sciences Project, funded by the EAC member states through a soft loan from the African Development Bank (AfDB).
The main objective of the wider project is to contribute to the development of a relevant and high-quality skilled workforce in biomedical sciences so as to meet the EAC immediate labour market needs and support the implementation of EAC’s ‘free’ labour market protocols.
While Tanzania is establishing an EAC centre of excellence for cardiovascular sciences, other member state countries are establishing the following centres of excellence: Kenya – renal disease and urology, Uganda – oncology, Rwanda – Biomedical Engineering, eHealth and Health rehabilitation sciences, and Burundi in nutritional sciences.
Prof Kamuhambwa further said they hope and request that the support is expanded further to enable establishment of more centres of excellence at the Mloganzila campus.
Through the Higher Education for Economic Transformation (HEET) project in which MUHAS is a beneficiary, he said they are constructing the College of Medicine and other teaching and learning facilities at Mloganzila campus.
“This will not only strengthen the University’s capacity to perform its core functions of training, research, and services, but it will also address the nation’s needs, which will continue to change as the disease landscape, health, and development needs change
“We have many other plans in various stages of realisation that will be realised through MUHAS researchers,” stated Prof Kamuhambwa.
Prof Kamuhabwa said MUHAS through support from the government and development partners has continued to grow and expand teaching and research environment while taking a leading role in providing consulting services and advice to the government, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) as well as international community.
To date, the University has over 135 on-going sponsored research projects, working with more than 100 international and local collaborating institutions, and producing between 450 and 500 scientific papers in reputable peer reviewed local and international journals annually.
