The University of Geneva and Harvard Medical International (HMI) have signed an agreement for the creation of a center of excellence in medical education in Geneva. The center will provide a resource for consultation on medical education strategy and specific training programs for academic institutions, health care institutions, health care professionals, in Switzerland and within the European healthcare community. The program will provide access to methodologies and current tools for program development, evaluation, and management.

With the aim of promoting excellence and innovation, the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Geneva and Harvard Medical International have joined forces to develop a powerful pool of resources, knowledge and experience that can be used for the transfer of knowledge and competencies in undergraduate and postgraduate medical education. The partnership which capitalizes on the strengths of both organizations, will specifically develop materials for institutions in the French speaking community as well as the European community on the whole.

Programs will focus on the development and management of the curricular for studies, adaptation of the systems for examination, and development of didactic competences and leadership within the academic body. Among the first courses considered will be: a program for physician-educators which is for doctors and scientists who are interested in teaching but do not have any formal advanced learning in pedagogy; a leadership program in medical education which aims to transmit techniques allowing the establishment and the management of organizational change; finally, the third program will teach methods in clinical research and will approach the topics of the development of protocols, the criteria of validation of a research, and training for ethics boards in patient safety.

As part of the continuous medical training offered by both HMI and the University of Geneva, these modules can be used to meet specific needs and can be organized on request. They will be offered through the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Geneva by faculty professors of the two institutions and will be promoted to health care professionals in both academic and commercial settings.

The agreement between the University of Geneva and HMI, which requires that both organizations make equivalent investments in the development of programs, initially relates to a five year period of collaboration. The programs will begin in 2003.

Partners in brief:

The University of Geneva is a publicly-owned establishment in charge of three missions: teaching, research and service to the city. Its activities are spread equally in the exact sciences and in the social sciences. The institution has had a Faculty of Medicine since 1873. Pioneer on the Swiss level, the latter started, in 1995, an in-depth reform of the studies controlled by its Unit of development and research in medical education (UDREM). It was given the mission of promoting the autonomy of the students and of developing their clinical, relational and practical competences. These efforts were judged favorably in 1999 by a group of international experts charged to evaluate teaching in the Swiss Faculty of Medicine.

Harvard Medical International (HMI) is a nonprofit, subsidiary corporation of Harvard University. Its activities are guided by the philosophy according to which each citizen should have community access to quality medical care. HMI creates partnerships with a network of international organizations to promote the excellence of the care as well as education and medical research.

For further information, please contact:

Harvard Medical International Inc.
Amanda J. Pullen, PhD., Director of Communications
Phone 001 617 535 64 00, Fax 001 617 535 64 10
www.hms.harvard.edu/hmi/

University of Geneva
Prof. Nu Viet Vu, PhD., Director UDREM
Phone 0041 22 702 51 20, Fax 0041 22 702 51 22
www.unige.ch/medecine/