Boston University and HENAR Launch Medical Education Program in Armenia
On April 22, a two-day conference on the transformation of post-graduate medical education took place in Yerevan, Armenia. The conference,“Advancing Competency-based Medical Training in Armenia through a Master’s Degree in Health Professions Education,” kicked-off a program designed to promote reforms in medical residency education in Armenia.
“Today we are announcing the launch of a very important initiative, the Master’s degree in Health Professions Education,” said Arman Voskerchyan, co-founder of the Health Network for Armenia (HENAR). HENAR, in conjunction with the Boston University – Armenia Medical Partnership (BU-AMP) has developed a hybrid version of Boston University’s Master’s degree program for residency program leaders in Armenia. The program is designed to equip Armenian physicians, clinical educators, and healthcare professional with contemporary competencies in leadership, teaching, research, and monitoring and evaluation skills.
“We are embarking on another system-changing program, one that aims to lay the foundation… to transform the entire landscape of postgraduate medical education,” said Minister of Health Anahit Avanesyan in her opening remarks. The program is designed to train medical residency directors to transform their departments’ residency programs to be based on demonstrating clinical competency in hands-on patient care rather than on just testing of theoretical knowledge of medicine.
“Critical to the development of an efficient and cost-effective healthcare system is the development of a systems-based medical training program,” said Aram Kaligian, MD, director of the BU-AMP. “This two-day session has been an important step in ensuring all stakeholders have a shared understanding of program goals and success metrics.” In attendance was Jeff Markuns, MD, the Director of the Global Health Collaborative at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine and the Director of the Master’s in HPE program. Markuns gave a presentation on how he and his colleagues have transformed primary care systems over the last twenty years in southeast Asia, most notably in Vietnam, Myanmar, and Cambodia.
The one-year Master’s degree program will teach competency-based medical curriculum development and evaluation skills, and the participants will then run bi-weekly Training-of-Trainer (ToT) programs in their respective departments to transform their own training programs. At the end of the year, the participants will have developed a new medical curriculum, evaluation tools, and trained their respective departments in the use of such skills, rather than simply writing a master’s thesis.
“I want to emphasize the importance of today’s occasion,” said Minister of Education Zhanna Andreasyan in her opening remarks. “Enhancing the competitiveness of our universities is a key goal within the ongoing reforms in Armenia’s higher education and science sector.”
Key partners in the program are Yerevan State Medical University (YSMU) and the Armenian National Institute of Health (ANIH), the only two institutions in Armenia accredited to run medical residency programs. YSMU Vice-Rector Garnik Avetisyan and ANIH Director Aleksander Bazarchyan also attended with many of their faculty. Speakers highlighted the program’s potential as a roadmap for modernizing Armenia’s postgraduate medical training system.
The two-day event provided a critical platform for collaboration and professional dialogue. The first day discussions focused on national policy and the structure of competency-based medical education programs. Participants had the opportunity to identify key priorities and challenges in the field and jointly outline the next steps forward. The second day of the conference featured interactive workshops. Participants engaged in hands-on exploration of the HPE program’s instructional modules through role-play, team-based activity, and practical assessment tools. The long-term goal of the program is to lay the foundation for a sustainable and innovative medical education system that meets the modern needs of training medical residents and healthcare professionals.
The Master’s Degree in Health Professions Education program is actively recruiting and screening candidates and is scheduled to begin at the start of the school year, in September 2025.
The Boston University-Armenia Medical Partnership (BU-AMP) is a multi-disciplinary program to coordinate collaboration for the improvement of healthcare in Armenia between the Aram V. Chobanian & Edward Avedisian School of Medicine and health policy and care entities in Armenia. For more information, contact Aram Kaligian, Director of the BU-AMP.