Fogarty Fellowship Provided UMN Researcher Foundational Experience in Global Health

Josh Rhein, MD, pictured, was a Fogarty Fellow in 2014. 

A career delivering clinical medicine isn’t always a given after medical school.

Some who study medicine go on to academia or research. Josh Rhein, MD, leaned towards the latter after spending a year in Uganda during an infectious disease fellowship.

“I hadn’t thought about a career in research until I was exposed to clinicians who were primarily researchers and saw that this was a huge part of medicine that we’re not exposed to during medical school,” said Rhein.

Rhein now spends most of his time as a researcher at the University of Minnesota Medical School’s infectious diseases and international medicine division. He specializes in cryptococcal meningitis and other HIV-related infections.

But his expertise in global health research took time to develop. And his time in Uganda made clear how specialized and varied international research design can be.

Rhein said his experience as a Fogarty Fellow was foundational in developing his knowledge of global health.  

The Fogarty Fellowship is a 12-month clinical research training program for postdoctoral trainees and doctoral students in the health professions, sponsored by the National Institutes of Health’s Fogarty International Center in partnership with several NIH institutes and centers. Rhein was a fellow in 2014 in Uganda. 

During the fellowship, he studied whether selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) could be a therapeutic option for cryptococcal meningitis. While his hypothesis didn’t pan out — SSRIs had no effect for patients — the experience afforded him a critical primer on global health research.

“You come out of med school and residency at the top of your game clinically but without very much formal training when it comes to research methods. You’re thrown into that world as a clinician scientist,” said Rhein.

“The Fogarty Fellowship was hugely important for me in understanding research design and the regulatory mechanisms that are at play; it also helped me in understanding the funding infrastructure. That week-long introduction at NIH was something I still remember.”

Rhein said the program’s mentorship component allowed him to participate in clinical trials he wouldn’t have had the opportunity to experience otherwise. His mentors, David Boulware, MD, MPH, and David Meya, MBChB, MMed, brought funding and a foundation of work that were helpful to Rhein.

“From a practical standpoint, it’s helpful to have a mentor who’s well-funded in the area. Because the fellowship couldn’t have funded that whole trial,” said Rhein. “We had an existing cohort of patients to draw from and benefitted from all the prior work that had been done at the site.”

The Center for Global Health and Social Responsibility, with Shailey Prasad, MD, MPH, serving as principal investigator, operationalizes the Fogarty Fellowship at the University of Minnesota.

“This fellowship provides a setting for young researchers to have an excellent learning environment with good mentors, practical exposure to global health research, and opportunities to explore future career tracks,” said Prasad. 

Rhein said his time as a Fogarty Fellow also helped him develop cultural competence and skills to ensure his research was equitable and beneficial to all parties involved.

After completing the Fogarty Fellowship, Rhein received a K award from the NIH. The award provided five years of funding for Rhein and allowed him another opportunity to receive mentored research training.

Rhein said he’s confident he wouldn’t have received the K award if he didn’t participate in the Fogarty Fellowship.

“I’m sure it helped that I had the Fogarty Fellowship on my resume, that I had done a global health fellowship and that I had experience in Uganda,” said Rhein. “I knew the landscape.”

Rhein has created quite a career for himself in global health research, authoring hundreds of published articles and recently working on the first step in what could be a cure for HIV.

But he hasn’t forgotten about his time as a Fogarty Fellow. The experience still serves him well today.

“You need that time on the ground establishing those relationships and understanding the research environment before you’re able to run things from this side of the ocean,” said Rhein of his work in the U.S.

“Even though I’m not based 100 percent there, my connections in Uganda are still strong — and they’re still an important part of my career.”