Providing Palliative Care in Kenya

by Indiana Institute for Global Health, Inc.

Project Report | Sep 28, 2026
Big Steps Forward!

By Kenneth Cornetta | Project Leader

Jambo Palliative Care Supporters,

Hope this note finds you well! I am in Kenya this month and am enjoying the wonderful people and beautiful weather here in Eldoret.

For this report, Dr. Hussein Elias and I have some exciting news.

Our third class of Clinical Officers have just begun their training to be certified as specialist in Palliative Care. For those not familiar with our prior efforts, Clinical Officers are similar in training to Physician Assistants in the US and they provide most of the healthcare in rural Kenya. We are the first in East Africa to offer a board certification course, which requires participants to spend at least 18 months in clinical care, lecture and directed learning. We anticipate up to 15 students this year!

Dr. Elias and I are finalizing plans to provide TeleHospice as a part of the palliative care clinic. The goal is to support individuals living in areas where there are no home hospice services, which is the reality for most living in Western Kenya. We previously published a pilot Telehospice study to support patients with severe cancer pain. The lessons learned will be used to support patients and their family with weekly calls, access to a 24-hour hotline, and medication support for pain and other symptoms. To learn a bit more of what we learned in our pilot study, here is a link to our original paper: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2023.01.027

For visitors new to our site, any support you can provide will be greatly appreciated. The number of clinical officers enrolled for specialty training is double what we anticipated. We will also be hiring a Clinical Officer to assist with the trainees and to be the individual managing the Telehospice service.

As always, THANKS to those who have been supporting our efforts!! You are a key part of our team and the progress made would not have been possible without YOU!

Asante sana (Thanks so much!),

Ken

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Jun 1, 2026
Primary Palliative Care !

By Kenneth Cornetta MD | Project Leader

Jambo Palliative Care Supporters,

Hope this note finds you well and enjoying the change in season – wherever you may live!

For this report, we’d like to update you on our education effort!

Professor Clarissa Johnston, a palliative care physician from the Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin, returned this April to share here clinical expertise with the team in Eldoret. She was joined by a palliative care fellow from Indiana University, Dr. Omair Syed. Together with Dr. Hussein Elias, they hosted the Palliative Care Course April 2026 for a variety local healthcare workers. It was extremely well received and improved the local clinical competence in pain management and communication skills.

This May, Dr. Elias and I, along with other faculty from the Department of Family Medicine, taught the Palliative Care Couse at the Moi University School of Medicine. The course is for the 6^th year medical students who are in their last year of training. Their enthusiasm for learning about symptom control and end-of-life care makes is encouraging, and their questions are always insightful. It is a credit to the School to have a specific course in palliative medicine. In many ways they are ahead of US medical schools in promoting patient-focus care.

We are now looking to expand our educational efforts throughout Western Kenya through a Teach the Teacher model. The goal is to provide all healthcare workers within the Kenyan health system with the basic knowledge of palliative care, consistent with their level of training. It is a model promoted by the World Health Organization and referred to as Primary Palliative Care (https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/integrating-palliative-care-and-symptom-relief-into-primary-health-care). As noted in our prior updates, your support has led to curricula development, initial testing, and publication in medical journals of our Teach the Teacher models (https://ascopubs.org/doi/10.1200/GO.22.00025, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12904-024-01415-5 , https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/5138).

Your support has been critical in allowing us to obtain this important preliminary data. We are currently seeking funding from sources like the US NIH, but the current climate for international support is challenging. Therefore, your continued support remains critical to continuing our efforts and disseminating palliative care knowledge and care to those in need.

With great appreciation,

Ken

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Jan 20, 2026
What's New for 2026!

By Kenneth Cornetta MD | Project Leader

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