Who trains our doctors? The hidden workers behind medical education

What happens when the academic work that shapes medical training is authored by people who remain entirely invisible to the system?

In this lecture, Patricia Kingori examines a striking phenomenon revealed through her documentary Shadow Scholars: highly educated Kenyan scholars ghost writing medical and healthcare assignments for students worldwide.

These writers possess the expertise to train the next generation of healthcare professionals, yet their intellectual contributions go unacknowledged while students graduate and enter practice without fully developing the competencies these assignments were designed to build. Professor Kingori will explore how this case study illuminates broader patterns in global health systems. Her research demonstrates how essential workers, from research fieldworkers to community health workers, enable critical interventions yet remain marginalised within structures of knowledge production and professional recognition.

As part of LSE Health's 30th Anniversary, this lecture addresses fundamental questions about medical education and global health equity: Who holds the authority to validate medical knowledge? What determines whether expertise is recognised as legitimate? And what are the implications when systemic power dynamics render crucial contributions invisible?

These questions matter beyond academia; they shape the quality and equity of healthcare systems worldwide.