{"id":204,"date":"2025-11-10T13:33:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T18:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/armenia\/?p=204"},"modified":"2026-03-03T11:08:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T16:08:22","slug":"boston-university-and-henar-kick-off-medical-education-workshops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/armenia\/2025\/11\/10\/boston-university-and-henar-kick-off-medical-education-workshops\/","title":{"rendered":"Boston University and HENAR Kick off Medical Education Workshops"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Man
Master\u2019s in HPE candidate Dr. Suren Brutyan leading curriculum redesign. workshop at YSMU.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On October 7-10, more than 150 Armenian doctors participated in the first of 20 medical education workshops\u2014conducted by six Masters\u2019 degree candidates in Health Professions Education (MHPE), a hybrid program offered by Boston University in collaboration with the HENAR (Health Network for Armenia) Foundation. The program is designed to equip Armenian physicians, clinical educators, and healthcare professionals with contemporary competencies in leadership, teaching, research and monitoring and evaluation skills.<\/p>\n

The week-long Training-of-Trainer (ToT) workshops were conducted by six Masters\u2019 degree candidates in collaboration with BU instructors. The six Masters\u2019 students are mid-career physicians in Yerevan interested in advancing medical education in Armenia. MHPE classes started in September 2025\u2014beginning an intensive one-year, 32-credit hybrid program offered for the first time by Boston University and its faculty. Lectures are delivered on-line three days a week by BU faculty.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Masters\u2019 students will continue conducting ToT workshops every two weeks with 20-30 participants each from their respective institutions, transforming their departments\u2019 residency curricula, teaching tools and evaluation methods. BU faculty will return to Armenia in January and June 2026 to help conduct two other week-long ToT workshops\u2014and then the program will be capped when the students travel to the U.S. in summer 2026 for six weeks of intensive training at clinics and health centers in the Boston area.<\/p>\n

\"Approximately
ToT participants at NIH.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe are officially launching the Training of Trainers course, which serves as a cornerstone of the Master\u2019s Degree Program in Health Professions Education,\u201d said Arman Voskerchyan, MD, co-founder of the HENAR Foundation, highlighting the MHPE program as one of the key milestones in the development of healthcare education in Armenia. \u201cOur goal has always been to be a driving force for change in the healthcare system. That is why we have designed this program as an evolutionary next step\u2014one that unites the agendas of improving educational quality and enhancing healthcare services.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Headshot
Aram Kaligian, MD<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cMany of us have been trying for years to marshal the resources of the Diaspora to make a significant, lasting contribution to the improvement of healthcare in Armenia,\u201d said Aram Kaligian<\/a>, MD, Director of the BU-Armenia Medical Partnership. He went on to thank the the partners whose invaluable work made this possible\u2014the HENAR Foundation, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Education, Yerevan State Medical University, and the Armenian National Institute of Health\u2014for their collaboration in the program. Kaligian also thanked \u201cthe intelligent, deeply-committed Masters\u2019 students, and all the ToT participants, for joining the workshops to help improve medical residency education and healthcare in Armenia.\u201d<\/p>\n

Henry Louis, MD, HENAR project manager of the MHPE program, opened the sessions with an introduction to Instructional Design and applying it to the redesign of medical curricula. He then outlined the day\u2019s activities\u2014to break into groups of 20-30 to work with Masters\u2019 students and BU faculty to develop goals and learning objectives for their respective medical specialties that can be measurable\u2014so that residency programs are based on demonstrating clinical competency in hands-on patient care rather than on just testing theoretical knowledge of medicine.<\/p>\n

\"Head
Jeffrey Markuns, MD<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Developed by Jeff Markuns<\/a>, MD, EdM, assistant professor of \u00a0family physician at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine and director of the Master of Health Professions Education program, the program is designed to be practicum-based rather than thesis-based — so that by the end of the year the ToT participants will have helped redesign their own medical curriculum, developed clinical teaching tools and monitoring and evaluation methods, and trained their respective departments in their use.<\/p>\n

\u201cI firmly believe in the need for change in medical education methodology and in promoting more effective, learner-centered approaches to motivate the next generation of medical professionals,\u201d said MPHE student Lilit Marutyan, MD, a pediatrician and Chief Medical Officer of Wigmore Family Health. \u201cIn the short term, I hope to apply the knowledge I\u2019ve gained to improve the training programs in our pediatric department. In the long term, I aim to use this experience to help launch a new training program for family medicine residents that will strengthen primary care in Armenia.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI joined the program because I wanted to become part of a global movement to transform postgraduate medical education in my country,\u201d said MHPE candidate Hrachuhi Ghazaryan, Chief Medical Officer at Wigmore Women\u2019s and Children\u2019s Hospital. \u201cEarly in my career, and through my exposure to residency models across the developed world, I realized how unprepared our residents often are, despite being strong students at home. This significant \u2018knowledge\u2013do\u2019 gap revealed the systemic shortcomings of our training model and inspired me to become someone who could help change that. The traditional\u00a0ordinatura<\/em>\u00a0model, which has shaped postgraduate training in Armenia for decades, no longer meets the needs of our evolving healthcare system. Structured reform is only possible if faculty are empowered to lead it – and I believe this program equips us with the tools to do exactly that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

The Boston University-Armenia Medical Partnership (BU-AMP) is a multi-disciplinary program to coordinate collaboration for the improvement of healthcare in Armenia between Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine and health policy and healthcare entities in Armenia. For more information, contact Aram Kaligian<\/u>, Director of the BU-AMP<\/em><\/p>\n

Founded in 2021 by Noubar and Anna Afeyan, Ruben Vardanyan, and Arman Voskerchyan, the HENAR Foundation aims to contribute to the transformation of Armenia\u2019s healthcare ecosystem. By building and empowering a network of partners, HENAR works to deliver better value, better care, and ultimately better health for current and dfuture generations of Armenians. With support from AIFA (Afeyan Initiatives for Armenia), HENAR is leading efforts to strengthen Armenia\u2019s primary care system, with a strong focus on talent development and digital innovation. For more information, visit https:\/\/henar.am<\/u><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On October 7-10, more than 150 Armenian doctors participated in the first of 20 medical education workshops\u2014conducted by six Masters\u2019 degree candidates in Health Professions Education (MHPE), a hybrid program offered by Boston University in collaboration with the HENAR (Health Network for Armenia) Foundation. The program is designed to equip Armenian physicians, clinical educators, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":903,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2114],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/armenia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/armenia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/armenia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/armenia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/903"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/armenia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/armenia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":213,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/armenia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204\/revisions\/213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/armenia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/armenia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/armenia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}