Merle A. Sande Health Leadership Award

Recognizing Emerging African Leaders in Infectious Disease

 

Background

Dr. Merle Sande was a visionary; known for his enthusiasm for work as well as life, his joy in teaching, and his outstanding leadership abilities. He was a renowned infectious diseases specialist with a brilliant career who loved medicine and pursued it as an academic endeavor. His passion made his teaching evocative as he transmitted his love of learning to others. Merle had an indomitable spirit, a remarkable breadth of knowledge and a knack for persuading his students and colleagues that they were as excited about the subject as he was. His dreams knew no boundaries. He was an inspiration to all that surrounded him in life and in the field of medicine.

Dr. Sande’s most indelible mark on life, however, occurred when he focused his attention on the AIDS crisis in Africa and established the Academic Alliance (AA) and Accordia Global Health Foundation. As Chief of Medicine at San Francisco General Hospital in the early 1980s, Merle had been on the frontlines when AIDS hit San Francisco. In those early years, there was no treatment, and he helplessly watched as thousands died. Hope emerged with antiretrovirals. However, the AIDS crisis in Africa grew, and Merle was impatient to help. He gathered his colleagues and convinced them that together, with their experience and resources, they could stem the tide of the African pandemic. He had a mission and the foresight to realize that the real challenge to the African HIV/AIDS crisis was to build healthcare capacity, specifically by training physicians and healthcare professionals to care for the vast numbers of HIV infected patients. Merle realized the paramount need to strengthen and upgrade academic medical centers in sub-Saharan Africa, so they could educate and prepare a generation of healthcare professionals skilled in the best practices to lead a resurgent effort against infectious disease. His vision came to fruition when the Infectious Diseases Institute (IDI) in Kampala, Uganda was created as a preeminent center in sub-Saharan Africa for infectious disease training, treatment, and research. Through Dr. Sande’s dream, IDI is providing opportunities for emerging African healthcare leaders and empowering a new generation that are working to overcome the burden of HIV and other infectious diseases in Africa.

The Merle A. Sande Health Leadership Award

The Merle A. Sande Health Leadership Award will be given annually to an emerging African leader who has contributed to the field of infectious disease in Africa, and embodies the passion, intellectual drive, and spirit of Dr. Sande. The successful candidate will be a young leader with remarkable accomplishments in teaching, research and/or clinical science. The award recipient will be selected by a committee comprised of members of the Academic Alliance, IDI, and the broader African academic medical community.

The awardee will be invited to lead 2 days of rounds, lectures, and a keynote address at the Infectious Diseases Institute in Kampala, Uganda. It is anticipated that the keynote address will be given on either April 12 or 13, 2010 during the annual Accordia board meeting in Kampala, which brings together Accordia, its Academic Alliance and Scientific Advisory Board and the IDI Board of Directors.

Travel support, accommodations, and a small honorarium will be provided to the distinguished lecturer. Funding for the Merle A. Sande Health Leadership Award is provided by his family, in his memory.

For more information

If you have any questions related to the Merle A. Sande Health Leadership Award, please email [email protected].

Click here to read about the 2010 Merle A. Sande Health Leadership Award recipient, Professor WD Francois Venter.