The IMPACT MED Alliance brings together a diverse group of university, public, and private sector partners to build a strong and effective health workforce able to respond to 21st century priorities and to contribute to the health resilience and health security of the country. Culminating last week, IMPACT MED project held a series of workshops at three partner medical universities (Ho Chi Minh University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Hue University of Medicine and Pharmacy, and Thai Nguyen University of Medicine and Pharmacy) with technical support from Professor Andrew Lichtman. Dr. Lichtman is a Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and a member of the HMS Curriculum Reform Steering Committee. The workshops provided an opportunity for Professor Lichtman to share his experience from HMS on curriculum reform and to generate discussion with university leadership and faculty members on how to implement reform in Vietnam.
Majors themes of the workshops included creating an integrated curriculum, changing pedagogy from traditional lecture-based approaches to more active teaching methods, and importance of early exposure of students to a clinical context. In Hue and Thai Nguyen, where the reform process is newly started, the focus was on developing an effective organizational structure for reform including developing a new curriculum framework and forming interdisciplinary curriculum committees.
During the workshops, leadership and faculty from all 3 universities showed enthusiasm and commitment for reform. The lessons from this mission will help the faculty gain expertise and confidence in the key concepts of medical curriculum reform.
