MEETING THE HEALTH CHALLENGES OF A NEWLY EMERGING MARKET ECONOMY: With the dramatic shift toward a market economy, Ukraine has faced many challenges in the past decade in the delivery of health care. Ukrainian health care organizations can no longer rely solely on a central government to fund their activities, and this requires a dynamic health care delivery system that is capable of responding to this changing environment. Health care executives in Ukraine require grounding in management concepts and principles if their organizations are to assume a vibrant part of the market economy. Further, Ukraine, as other former Soviet Union countries, has experienced a rapid increase in HIV/AIDS which can only be contained with greater capacity for program delivery and management, as well as new technical skills, infrastructure and treatments in-country. Health care management and delivery needs compelled Sparkman Center collaborators at the National Pirogov Medical University in Vinnitsa to create curriculum reform and training for their faculty in the school’s department of community medicine.

Partnership with the Sparkman Center for Global Health was formalized in 2000; a memorandum of understanding was signed between UAB and Pirogov Medical University, Vinnitsa, Ukraine to address this need. The purpose of the partnership is to enhance Pirogov University’s educational and research capacity at the graduate level for health care management. It is expected that new course and program offerings will better prepare Pirogov graduates to assume leadership positions in hospitals, polyclinics, and other organizations providing health services for Ukrainians.

GOALS: To upgrade infrastructure and curriculum for sustainable training in community health for medical and nursing students in Ukraine, with an eventual goal of creating an MPH program at the Pirogov Medical University, Vinnitsa Ukraine.

Pirogov Medical University