The environment in Sub-Saharan Africa presents unique challenges to improving health, strengthening health systems, and educating future health care workers, including physicians. Sub-Saharan Africa suffers from disproportionate disease burden. Twelve percent of the world’s population lives in Sub-Saharan Africa, yet the region suffers 27% of the world’s total burden of disease, has only 3.5% of the world’s health care workforce, and 1.7% of the world’s physicians in an environment of limited resources. It is therefore apparent that health professions training in Africa must undergo changes to overcome these challenges.