From the beginning of his career, it seemed Dr. Bryan Vonasek and his research in Malawi were destined to come together.
After earning his bachelor’s degree and being accepted into the Peace Corps, Vonasek was invited to work in Malawi, a country he had no previous knowledge of or experience in.
“I sort of jumped into [working in Malawi] very young and naïve, but it was a really great experience for me,” Vonasek said. “For me, I grew a lot as an individual and found out that I really enjoyed working in Malawi with the people there. There are lots of interesting challenges to work on.”
Vonasek began his medical training after finishing his Peace Corps service in Malawi. He continued to travel to Malawi to help at local hospitals as part of his medical training, and he became more involved there in medical research projects.
“During that frontline practical work of taking care of sick children in Malawi, that became clear as a kind of interest of mine and something that I wanted to continue to do throughout my career.”
As a pediatrics resident and an infectious disease fellow, Dr. Vonasek participated in an infectious disease fellowship and contributed to multiple clinical projects in the city of Lilongwe, Malawi at Kamuzu Central Hospital. He joined Michigan State University in 2024 in a unique faculty position that has him based half the year in Malawi, but in a new setting there for him: in Blantyre city, working with new partners at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital, Kamuzu University of Health Sciences, and different research institutions. Currently, Dr. Vonasek spends much of his time in Malawi researching how to better diagnose and treat tuberculosis in young children.
“TB is really hard to diagnose in young children, and there are some questions too about what the proper dose for the treatment of TB should be,” Vonasek said. “So we have a research project right now to look at those challenges with the larger vision of reducing suffering from TB in the pediatric population.”
In addition to his tuberculosis research, Dr. Vonasek mentors Malawian and MSU medical trainees on their respective research projects, which mainly focus on treating infectious diseases in low-resource areas. Dr. Vonasek has taken over many teaching responsibilities from Dr. Terri Taylor, who has led groundbreaking research in cerebral malaria and supervised MSU medical students on elective rotations in Blantyre for nearly four decades. With Dr. Taylor retiring from her work in Malawi, Bryan is now leading the Education Abroad program Taylor established there, which he hopes will continue to draw interest from COM and CHM students.
“The elective clerkship in Malawi is a long-standing program started by Professor Terri Taylor,” Vonasek said. “My kind of overall goal with [the program] is to continue and maintain what has been a very successful and very fruitful experience for students over the past two decades.”
Under the guidance of Dr. Taylor, and now Dr. Vonasek, this opportunity is one of the longest-standing medical Education Abroad programs offered by MSU. It gives medical students unique opportunities to learn about local health care practices, study infectious diseases in the region, and experience local culture.
“[The Malawi Education Abroad program] is a program for fourth-year medical students,” Dr. Vonasek said. “In the spring semester, students come to Malawi for usually six weeks at a time on an elective clerkship rotation where their main focus is to work in the local hospital, take care of patients, and attend educational sessions to learn how to provide medical care in a low-resource environment.”
Dr. Vonasek notes that not only do students get to be in an amazing learning environment at the hospital, but they can now take advantage of new accommodations provided to MSU students.
“In Blantyre, with donor support and Terri Taylor’s leadership over the past few years, new dormitories have been constructed on the Michigan State-managed property where my family and I also stay,” Vonasek said. “It’s less than a mile away from the hospital where we work.”
Interested medical students can participate in the Malawi Education Abroad program in their fourth year after completing the IM-618 course as a prerequisite. Dr. Vonasek notes that the best time for students to apply is about one year in advance, during their third year of medical school, after taking the prerequisite course.
The Malawi program, according to Dr. Vonasek, is a great opportunity for students to not only gain experience but also give back to communities in need.
“Working in this setting is a huge opportunity for growth and learning, and also an opportunity to provide care that otherwise wouldn’t really happen when the students aren’t there.”