Dr. Joseph R. Masci Legacy Project

(2024 – Present)

In September 2024 with support from his family, AIHA launched the Dr. Joseph R. Masci Legacy Project, a new two-year endeavor to strengthen institutional and human resource capacity at two international hospitals – Debre Berhan Comprehensive Specialized Hospital in Ethiopia and Philippine General Hospital in Manilla, Philippines. Click here to read the news release announcing the project.

Dr. Joseph R. Masci

Dr. Joseph R. Masci was an infectious disease specialist and public health leader who spent more than 40 years working to improve the lives of patients in New York City and around the world. He was also a highly valued AIHA partner who spearheaded multi-year twinning partnerships to improve HIV/AIDS care in Ethiopia and Russia.

Dr. Masci was known by all to be a caring, compassionate doctor, who educated and mentored infectious disease physicians who trained at Elmhurst Hospital Center and around the globe. He was a role model who combined vast knowledge with a kind, empathetic, patient-centered approach. Click here to read Dr. Masci’s biography and here for his Wikipedia page.

A true champion of public health collaboration, Dr. Masci said the following about AIHA’s partnership model in 2014:

“The nature of the twinning model … working so closely with our exact counterparts over several years and developing these long-term professional and personal relationships is something that is just not possible with any other form of technical assistance. There is a special value to this process where colleagues can work and grow together. When we go over as a team, we get to see each other in a different light as we all respond to the challenges of working in the Ethiopian setting. It fosters a genuine camaraderie among the Elmhurst staff and gets us to look at our own work processes more critically.”

Through the Joseph R. Masci Legacy Project, AIHA is both humbled and grateful to be working with Dr. Masci’s family to design and implement capacity-building projects that honor his legacy as a physician, teacher, mentor, and public health leader.

Explaining her vision for the project, Dr. Masci’s widow Elizabeth Bass said:

“Much of this funding will go to help improve training facilities for healthcare workers in Ethiopia and the Philippines. We hope the project’s impact will be multiplied as the health workers trained through it not only treat patients, but also share their skills with other workers and serve as mentors themselves. This would be right in line with what Joe tried to do – learning from others and teaching and mentoring generations of young physicians.”

In support of Debre Berhan Comprehensive Specialized Hospital and Philippine General Hospital, AIHA’s technical assistance approach is rooted in three key strategies:

Philippines

In close collaboration with stakeholders at Philippine General Hospital, AIHA identified four development priorities:

Supporting the reconstruction of the resident-fellow training hall, which was destroyed by two devastating fires this past year
Providing scholarships to enable 10-15 residents to complete a mandatory specialty study abroad course
Providing technical assistance to strengthen the hospital’s pandemic and emergency preparedness
Establishing an HIV and infectious diseases mentorship program

Dr. Carlos Salama (standing at the rear center) meets with a group of residents and fellows at Philippine General Hospital during the September 2024 exchange.

Click here to read how Dr. John C. Añonuevo, Chairman of Philippine General Hospital’s Department of Medicine, envisions support from the Dr. Joseph R. Masci Legacy Project will help his institution.

The first technical assistance mission under the project brought AIHA’s Program Director Dr. Inna Jurkevich and Elmhurst Hospital Center’s Chief of Global Health Dr. Carlos Salama to Manilla September 23 – 27 where they met with leaders, residents, and other stakeholders to chart a course for project work in the coming months. Dr. Salama, who is also a Professor of Medicine and Infectious Diseases at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, delivered lectures on antiviral resistance and novel HIV therapies and emergency preparedness in the wake of the COVID 19 pandemic to some 135 residents, fellows, and other interested individuals.

“As a pioneer during the beginning of the AIDS pandemic, Dr. Joseph Masci opened the Elmhurst HIV clinic to care for this most vulnerable community of patients from a variety of backgrounds who were being shunned by society. The clinic went on to become one of the leading HIV treatment centers in the United States. As a visionary in the field of global health, he implemented physician exchange programs in Ethiopia and Russia to improve HIV patient care abroad. Dr. Masci’s vision now lives on as his family supports a program that brings further guidance to the growing HIV epidemic in the Philippines in his memory.”
– Dr. Carlos Salama, Chief of Global Health at Elmhurst Hospital Center and technical advisor to the project

Under the project, AIHA is providing scholarships to enable a highly qualified group of residents, fellows, and faculty to complete a mandatory specialty study abroad course. In the fall of 2024, we supported outreach and recruitment efforts for the scholarship program and, in early 2025, PGH selected the first cohort of scholars, some of whom began their study abroad courses in March 2025. Click here to see biographies for each of the 15 scholarship recipients.

PGH created a multi-disciplinary Pandemic Preparedness Team that has already completed an assessment of the hospital using the PanFlu Planning Checklist developed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This checklist focuses on preparedness, response, and recovery across areas including healthcare, community, and individual actions.

PGH shared the results of the survey with their U.S. partners, along with best practices developed and implemented during the hospital’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the Philippine Department of Health’s Interim Guideline for the Implementation of Enhanced Avian Flu Surveillance, Management, and Infection Control.

AIHA has assembled a Pandemic Preparedness Team for the project, which includes the following internationally recognized experts:

Syra Madad, DHSc, MSc, MCP, CHEP, Chief Biopreparedness Officer, NYC Health + Hospitals
Laura Lavicoli, MD, MBA, FACEP, CHEP, Professor of Emergency Medicine, CMO, Elmhurst Medical Center, Senior Associate Dean, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
John Hick, Advisor to the Director and Lead Editor, ASPR TRACIE (www.asprtracie.hhs.gov) – Hospital Preparedness Program, Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response / HHS (ASPR/HHS), Professor of Emergency Medicine, University of Minnesota
Sarah Brown, Climate Health Project Specialist, System-wide Special Pathogens Program, NYC Health + Hospitals

Currently, the U.S. expert team is reviewing the guidelines and checklist and plans to follow up with their PGH counterparts via a series of conference calls.

AIHA launched the HIV and Infectious Disease Mentorship Initiative at PGH in September 2024 with the first visit from Elmhurst’s Dr. Carlos Salama, who met with PGH leadership and Infectious Diseases faculty, senior residents, and fellows. Dr. Salama conducted clinical rounds at the hospital, discussed complicated HIV patients with multiple co-infections, and delivered plenary sessions on topics requested by PGH.

During this initial visit, Dr. Salama assessed the level of knowledge, skills, and competencies of the residents and fellows and noted that he was very impressed with their theoretical knowledge and diagnostics skills. However, he also noted that the continuum of care at PGH’s HIV Clinic, including the engagement of non-medical personnel in follow-up and monitoring of adherence to ART, can be significantly improved.

Based on these observations, AIHA suggested restructuring the HIV Clinic at PGH based on Elmhurst’s HIV Clinic, which has one of the highest adherence rates in New York City. PGH agreed with this recommendation and the AIHA and PGH teams will work closely with Dr. Salama to develop and implement ideas for restructuring PGH’s existing clinic. To this end, a group of three decision-makers from PGH will participate in a study tour to New York in June 2025. The Study Tour will also include two experts on Pandemic Preparedness.

In February 2025, Drs. Benjamin Young and Carlos Salama, accompanied by AIHA’s Program Director, participated in a second exchange visit to PGH in support of this activity. They presented plenary sessions focused on topics requested by the PGH team, including status of efforts to develop an HIV vaccine, HIV and aging, climate change and infectious diseases, COVID-19 vaccine development, resistance to ART, and best practices for establishing PGH’s HIV Clinic. Both experts also conducted clinical rounds, discussed treatment of complex patients, agreed on online mentorship for 14 residents and fellows, and planned for online medical forums.

In its first six months, the project’s work on HIV medicine strengthened the knowledge of fellows, residents, and faculty across various technical areas, led to the decision to restructure PGH’s HIV Clinic based on Elmhurst’s example, and created a mentorship group that will have regular online sessions, strengthen a global community of experts in both the Philippines and the United States, and improve access to U.S. expertise to support the most complex patients from the Philippines.

AIHA plans to implement the following activities in the Philippines from April – September 2025:

Support reconstruction of the resident-fellow training hall with funds donated through the project
Provide regular updates on outcomes of study abroad activities of the 15 scholars
Arrange a trip to PGH in April to complete the assessment of pandemic preparedness and develop the roadmap for improvement
Organize a study tour to New York in June for a PGH team consisting of three decision-makers (HIV medicine component) and two (pandemic preparedness component)
Organize a trip to PGH in September for several experts from the New York Health + Hospitals network to conduct an assessment on special pathogens as part of the pandemic preparedness activities
Implement ongoing Mentorship in HIV Medicine initiative

Ethiopia

In Ethiopia, the project is building on the strong foundation made through the AIHA twinning partnership that linked Debre Berhan

AIHA’s partnership linking Debre Berhan Referral Hospital with Elmhurst Hospital Center introduced many transformative changes in practice and quality of care from 2007 to 2014.

Comprehensive Specialized Hospital with Elmhurst Hospital Center. Click here to read about the many successes of this seven-year collaboration. Through the Dr. Joseph R. Masci Legacy Project, AIHA will work hand-in-hand with the Ethiopia partners on the following priority areas:

Improving access to quality, needs-driven continuing professional development training opportunities for health workers at the referral hospitals, as well as the cluster hospitals it supports
Improving the quality of nursing services by enhancing and expanding skills-based competencies of nurses
Implementing quality improvement initiatives designed to address significant gaps identified in infection prevention and patient safety
Refurbishing and upgrading the Hospital’s Continuing Professional Development Center and Nursing Skills Lab to better support quality training and upskilling activities

AIHA marked the official launch of the Dr. Joseph R. Masci Legacy Project in Ethiopia on Nov. 25, 2024, during the first patient safety training session conducted by our partners at Debre Berhan Comprehensive Specialized Hospital. Click here to read more.

AIHA celebrated the official launch of the project in Debre Berhan on Nov. 25, 2024.

Prior to the official launch, AIHA organized a training of trainers course focused on healthcare quality improvement at the Hospital’s Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Center. Debre Berhan’s CPD Center was established in 2022 and is a registered CPD provider in Ethiopia under the FMOH’s Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Program, which aims to ensure the competency of health professionals through standardized in-service training that links continuing education units (CEUs) with license renewal requirements. A group of 28 trainees, including senior managers, department coordinators, and other senior members of the Hospital team, attended the course, which was held September 25-30, 2024. Participants were awarded 15 continuing education units (CEUs) and the Hospital’s Medical Director commented that the training also provided an opportunity to discuss the next steps, including ideas for project implementation and monitoring plans. Trainers for this event included two experts from the Amhara Regional Health Bureau; the third was the DBCSH Medical Director, who has been certified as a trainer by the FMOH.

“Our goal is to expand training to develop a skilled, multidisciplinary health workforce to help ensure patient safety and combat hospital-acquired infections and antimicrobial resistance. The staff we will train will in turn train other hospital staff, along with those working at nearby health facilities.”
– Dr. Nigussie Tefera, Debre Berhan Comprehensive Specialized Hospital CCO, speaking on the importance of establishing a well-organized Continuous Professional Development Center at the Hospital.

AIHA and the DBCSH team identified health practitioner knowledge and skills as a key gap to be addressed through the project and selected quality of care, nursing practice, and patient safety as topics for the first training courses conducted in the fall of 2024. These initial courses were designed to build capacity among Hospital staff so they, in turn, can train other healthcare professionals moving forward.

One of these was a training of trainers (TOT) course on healthcare quality improvement at DBCSH in September, which was attended by 28 hospital staff members, including two women. The sessions provided an overview of healthcare quality topics, the science behind quality improvement and models for implementation of projects. It also included exercises in team building, problem prioritization, setting goals, conducting root cause analysis, generating ideas for change, measuring improvement, and testing changes. As a TOT course, lessons on coaching, creating a learning network, strategies for sustainability and scale-up, and facilitation skills – all using an adult learning approach – were included. Three expert trainers from the national pool facilitated the course and the DBCSH Healthcare Quality and Innovation Unit is cascading learning sessions to share quality improvement lessons with other staff.

Following the TOT, a quality improvement training was conducted for 25 professionals from DBCHS and three of its cluster hospitals. The participants will now identify quality improvement projects for implementation at their facilities and selected projects will receive support through the Project.

The team conducted another TOT course January 17-20, 2025, on Instructional Design Skills. This course – which was delivered to 15 DBCSH staff members, one of whom was female – was designed to strengthen the capacity of DBCHS healthcare professionals and equip them with advanced instructional design methodologies, foster collaboration among multidisciplinary teams for more effective knowledge transfer, and strengthen the capacity of the trainers to deliver quality CPD programs. This course also focused on essential knowledge and skills to design, produce, and evaluate effective training programs.

DBCSH employs 254 nurses and midwives, comprising approximately 40 percent of its entire staff. This component of the Project responds to the increasing demand for skilled nursing professionals who can adapt to dynamic healthcare environments, including dealing with evolving diseases, new technologies, and patient expectations. Focusing on this cadre and strengthening its capacity will significantly improve hospital services and patient health outcomes.

AIHA recognizes that equipping DBCSH’s Nursing Skills Lab is a critical component of improving the knowledge and skills of the nurses and midwives at the Hospital. Unfortunately, nursing colleges usually don’t have nursing skills labs, so it has become the responsibility of hospitals that accept nursing graduates as staff to train and mentor them in hands-on clinical skills before they practice on patients. To that end, we are in the process of procuring various materials, including pulse oximeters, glucometers, pediatric weighing scales, and other needed equipment and training resources.

In October 2024, AIHA supported a Nursing Care Standards and Practice TOT Course, training a total of 24 DBCSH staff members, including six women. The training’s multi-dimensional objectives aimed to enhance both the theoretical and practical skills of nursing and professionals. Key topics covered included the nursing process, clinical practices, ethics, effective communication, patient safety, and interdisciplinary collaboration – all of which are essential for ensuring quality care and optimal patient outcomes. Participants also learned important critical thinking and leadership competencies. In addition to this training, nurses were also invited to relevant trainings supported by the Dr. Joseph R. Masci Legacy Project at DBCSH.

To address gaps in infection prevention and patient safety and improve the ability of DBCSH to prevent hospital-acquired infections and bolster the quality of healthcare services they deliver, AIHA has thus far delivered two related training courses through the Project.

A National Patient Safety Training was delivered to 45 DBCSH staff members, including 23 women, November 21-25, 2024. Pivotal for improving patient safety and healthcare quality, this training aimed to address gaps in current patient safety practices, raise awareness about healthcare challenges, and promote the adoption of national and global best practices in patient safety. The training provided participants with practical tools and knowledge to mitigate medical errors, improve patient outcomes, and establish a safety culture at DBCSH and its cluster hospitals. It was also designed to ensure high-quality care and reduce incidents of harm within healthcare institutions in alignment with national strategies for reducing medical errors, fostering evidence-based practices, and improving communication within healthcare teams.

Ethiopia is facing an increasing burden of critical illnesses, trauma, sepsis, respiratory failure, and post-operative complications, so there is a growing need for well-trained professionals who can efficiently manage life-threatening conditions. In response, the team conducted an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) Training March 3-8, 2025, for 27 DBCSH staff members, 15 of whom were women. Given the complexity of ICU care, multidisciplinary teamwork and adherence to international ICU standards are crucial for improving survival rates and reducing morbidity.

AIHA and the DBCSH team conducted a Motivated, Compassionate, and Competent (MCC) Training at DBCSH March 26-30, 2025.

With the overarching goal of equipping healthcare providers with essential skills to foster patient-centered care and improve healthcare outcomes, AIHA and the DBCSH team conducted a Motivated, Compassionate, and Competent (MCC) Training March 26-30, 2025. The training initiative aligns with the broader goal of strengthening Ethiopia’s healthcare workforce by integrating principles of ethical decision-making, leadership, and quality improvement into daily practice. A total of 32 health workers, including 24 women, attended the course, which was also designed to foster a culture of continuous professional development and improvement and improve teamwork and multidisciplinary collaboration in healthcare settings. The training focused on building multidisciplinary collaboration to enhance cross-sector learning and used real-life case studies, integration of hospital data, and interactive exercises to reinforce the MCC framework and its practical applications. The pre-test average score was 49.38 percent while the post-test average score improved to 94.19 percent, demonstrating significant knowledge gain.

Through the Project, AIHA supported a 3-day Antimicrobial Stewardship Training at DBCSH May 9-11, 2025. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is one of the top 10 global public health threats, according to WHO, and inappropriate use of antibiotics in both humans and animals has contributed significantly to the development and spread of resistant pathogens. This training brought together 27 general practitioners, nurses, pharmacists, medical laboratory professionals, and environmental health officers – all pivotal roles in the fight against AMR. With the overarching objective of enhancing the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of healthcare providers in rational antibiotic use, the training was designed to raise awareness about the current situation of AMR at global, national, and facility levels; improve understanding of antimicrobial stewardship principles and applications; and build capacity for rational prescription practices. The course also focused on enhancing collaboration among healthcare workers for improved patient outcomes and developing a multidisciplinary AMS Team at DBCSH. Participants collaborated to develop tools for monitoring and evaluating AMS at the hospital, as well as facility-specific AMS action plans. Trainers provided relevant, contextualized content tailored to local practices along with real-life examples drawn from the Ethiopian context, using a highly interactive methodology that kept participants engaged.

A total of 27 health professionals, including eight women, attended the Antimicrobial Stewardship training at DBCSH May 9-11, 2025.

Participants from all relevant departments attended the training, fostering inter-professional teamwork at DBCSH and helping to identify champions from each professional group. More than 85 percent of the participants demonstrated knowledge improvement based on pre- and post-test averages. Increased willingness to apply AMS tools in clinical care was also demonstrated.

From June to September 2025, AIHA plans to implement the following activities in Ethiopia:

Support 3-4 DBCSH staff to participate in the FMOH Leadership Incubation Program for Health
Continue activities related to renovating and equipping the CPD Center
Conduct additional trainings on topics that may include quality improvement, basic infection prevention and control, pain assessment and management (TOT), basic patient safety, and others based on DBCSH requests

In addition to these country-specific activities, the Legacy Project will also support the strengthening of AIHA’s capacity to implement development projects by providing staff members opportunities to improve our own technical expertise, operational excellence, and long-term financial sustainability. In turn, AIHA will strive to leverage the generous contribution provided by the Masci family with other prospective donors.

Updated May 30, 2025.