Botswana About Us

Through the Botswana Global Health Program senior residents and fellows can complete a four-week elective at Princess Marina Hospital in Gabarone under the supervision of Dr. Catronia Steward, Director of the Anesthesia Critical Care Rotation in Botswana.  Trainees conduct both adult and pediatric patient care and participate in teaching Botswanan residents and attendings. 

When BIDMC anesthesiologist Dr. Edward Clune arrived in Botswana with his family in 2017 his role was help shore up critical care capacity, bring American residents in the country for rotations, and provide training to local clinicians. He didn’t know that in a few years he’d be leading a Botswana-based anesthesia residency program set to graduate its first group of home trained doctors in 2023.  Dr. Clune is part of the Botswana Global Health Initiative, launched in 2011 to provide education, curriculum development and QI support, initially at Scottish Livingstone Hospital (SLH) in Molepolole, Botswana.  At the time SLH was able to provide straightforward internal medicine and OB/GYN, but patients requiring more complicated treatment had to be transferred via a long ambulance ride to the larger hospital in the capital city Gaborone. Dr. Clune became Chief of Anesthesia at SLH and joined the faculty at the University of Botswana, School of Medicine, the only medical school in this in this country of 2.3 million. 

Dr. Clune brought residents from American hospitals, including BIDMC, to Botswana for training and to help provide anesthesia and critical care.  He helped build medical infrastructure at SLH, set up a larger ICU with 24-hour coverage, provided, along with residents, intensive care in the ICUs, and did trainings for Botswana providers to improve their skill in critical care and non-routine medical procedures.  He also filled in gaps when necessary, providing much needed pediatric care and dealing with wildlife related injuries like snake bites and even the occasional elephant trampling.   Anesthesiology services are in high demand as well since the limited number of anesthesiologists in Botswana are mostly foreign nationals like Dr. Clune.  While providing local trainings, he and BIDMC OB/GYN physician Dr. Rebecca Luckett, who was also in Botswana, realized how powerful it would be if Botswana had a home-based residency program for anesthesia and critical care for the country to educate their own providers.  Several residency programs had started in the years before Dr. Clune arrived but didn’t last very long. Drs. Clune and Luckett worked with their colleagues in Botswana to launch an anesthesia residency in 2019.  The first class of residents graduated in 2023. 

Now under the leadership of Dr. Catronia Stewart, the program continues to grow and thrive, and each year will produce another class of home-grown anesthesiologists to provide care for the people of Botswana.  Along with our department's other global health initiatives, it is a model for creating self-sustaining medical education programs in resource limited settings through dedicated collaboration with local medical institutions and clinicians.