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Background Cancer mortality is high in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), partly due to inadequate treatment access. We explored access to and affordability of cancer treatment regimens for the top 10 cancers utilizing examples from Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda. Materials and Methods Population, healthcare financing, minimum wage, and cancer incidence and mortality data were obtained from the WHO, World Bank, public sources, and GLOBOCAN. National Essential Medicines List (NEML) alignment with 2019 WHO EML was assessed as a proportion. Cancer regimen pricing was calculated using public and proprietary sources and methods from prior studies. Affordability through universal healthcare coverage (UHC) was assessed as 1-year cost <3× gross national income per capita; and to patients out-of-pocket (OOP), as 30-day treatment course cost <1 day of minimum wage work. Results A total of 93.4% of the WHO EML cancer medicines were listed on the 2019 Kenya NEML, and 70.5% and 41.1% on Uganda (2016) and Rwanda (2015) NEMLs, respectively. Generic chemotherapies were available and affordable to governments through UHC to treat non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, cervical, breast, prostate, colorectal, ovarian cancers, and select leukemias. Newer targeted agents were not affordable through government UHC purchasing, while some capecitabine-based regimens were not affordable in Uganda and Rwanda. All therapies were not affordable OOP. Conclusion All cancer treatment regimens were not affordable OOP and some were not covered by governments. Newer targeted drugs were not affordable to all 3 governments. UHC of cancer drugs and improving targeted therapy affordability to LMIC governments in SSA are key to improving treatment access and health outcomes.

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The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine’s Learning Community–White Coat Ceremony (LC-WCC) is held each spring as a learning community (LC) event. Learning communities (LCs) connect people to learn and work across boundaries to achieve a shared goal. The LC-WCC invites first-year students to collaborate with school leaders, define the class professional values, and innovate with community members. Class-elected student leaders recruit peers to join committees to plan and lead several aspects of the ceremony, including a class-nominated speaker, a personal statements presentation, a patient inclusion presentation, a class-authored statement of values, and artistic performances. Student cloaking is performed by LC advisors in their LC small groups. A 2015 post-LC-WCC survey asking students to compare experiences of a traditional Stethoscope Ceremony (SC) with the LC-WCC found that the latter significantly increased students’ sense of accomplishment (38% vs 68%, P < .001), sense of connection to the school (59% vs 82%, P < .001), to classmates (71% vs 93%, P < .001), and to the event (42% vs 76%, P < .001). Cloaking as a community is an effective way for a medical school LC to instill a greater sense of community and student leadership in this milestone celebration of humanistic values in medicine.