Academic global health collaboration: the Ruhuna-Duke partnership

The role of institutional partnerships is increasingly recognized as a means of advancing our collective efficacy in improving public health. Shared challenges related to infectious and chronic diseases, as well as social determinants of health including environmental stressors, have led to a growth in academic global health collaborations. Triggered by the 2004 tsunami, the University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka, and Duke University, USA, established an educational and research collaboration that has been sustained and broadened over two decades. The initiation and development of the collaboration, as well as its educational and research components, are described in this manuscript. We discuss lessons learned that may be of interest to other emerging partnerships: the keys to the collaboration's success, challenges and barriers faced, as well as plans to sustain and further grow an equitable, academically rigorous, and impactful global health partnership.