One in eight hospital patients in Africa is critically ill—and one in five of these patients dies within 7 days. Most are cared for in general wards, not intensive care units, and do not receive the essential emergency and critical care treatments they need to survive.

Until recently, many countries had no formal training programs in pulmonary, emergency, or critical care medicine to prepare physicians for this growing burden. Without a specialist workforce, health systems cannot manage critical illness—or respond to epidemics, trauma, or advanced complications of TB and HIV. This leaves patients with reversible conditions dying from a lack of specialist care.

In Ethiopia, a country of more than 100 million people, there were no accredited pulmonary or critical care training programs just a decade ago.

CHART-A actively supports the work of the East African Training Initiative (EATI), which leads Ethiopia’s first formal physician training programs in pulmonary, emergency, and critical care medicine. These programs—led by African clinicians and aligned with national priorities—are building the specialist workforce needed to close this critical gap.

Ethiopia’s first specialist training programs in pulmonary, emergency, and critical care medicine are led by the East African Training Initiative (EATI) and supported by CHART-A through hands-on teaching, mentorship, and program development. Many CHART-A board members were instrumental in founding EATI, have trained physicians through its programs, and continue to contribute directly alongside EATI faculty and partners.

Our Impact So Far

• EATI established the first pulmonary and critical care fellowship in East Africa, producing a cohort of physicians who now lead clinical care, training, and research at top public hospitals—and who have published widely on topics including lung cancer, asthma, critical illness, pulmonary hypertension, and COVID-19

• Together with CHART-A’s ongoing faculty participation, EATI created a replicable training model that combines bedside teaching, leadership development, and mentorship in education and research

• EATI built long-term partnerships with national institutions to ensure sustainability, policy integration, and broad health system impact

CHART-A’s work is about more than clinical teaching. We focus on building self-sustaining systems—with strong local faculty, clear career paths, and integration into national health strategies.

What We’re Doing Now

• Training pulmonary, emergency, and critical care physicians through fellowship and residency programs

• Delivering hands-on bedside teaching and mentorship, modeled after top global programs

• Supporting leadership development so local physicians become educators, department heads, and program directors

• Embedding research and public health training into all programs to expand influence beyond the hospital walls

Each initiative is a collaboration with local partners to ensure relevance, ownership, and long-term sustainability.

Critical illness is treatable—but only when health systems are equipped to respond. Your support helps CHART-A bring world-class training to frontline providers, saving lives and strengthening care across the continent.