The University of Texas, South Western Medical Centre, has pledged to collaborate with local health institutes in facilitating research and conducting projects that benefit both Rwanda and the university.

The pledge was made by the Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Medical School, Gregory J. Fitz, who led a delegation of staff from the University that visited the Kigali Health Institute (KHI) yesterday.

Speaking after touring the institute’s campus, Fitz expressed satisfaction with the strides that the Institute has taken in equipping Rwanda’s health sector with qualified personnel.

"Our visit aims at working with Rwanda’s health sector through long and short term relationships aimed at improving medical care, medical training and research.

As far as research is concerned, the head of the delegation said that they were going to forge collaboration between the University of Texas and KHI so as facilitate researchers.

According to the rector of KHI, Desire Ndushabandi, the collaboration between the two institutions will enable KHI to introduce more vital programmes on their curricula.

"With collaboration between KHI and the University of Texas, we will be able to introduce some vital programs and capacity building courses such as Masters in Speech Pathology and strengthening research and consultancy.”

KHI boasts of a state –of-the art dental clinic and it is one of the referral dental clinics in Rwanda.

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