MCA Mongolia Funds New Masters of Public Health Program

On July 6, 2011 in Ulaanbaatar City, Mongolia, a host of people, including the Vice Minister of Health, the U.S. Ambassador to Mongolia, the Millennium Challenge Corporation Mongolian Resident Director, the Millennium Challenge Account Health Project Director and 36 masters of public health candidates, gathered for the opening ceremony of a newly established public health training program. The ceremony introduced the program, featured speeches from the aforementioned parties and had an enjoyable intermission that included flute playing and throat singing.




The MPH program, funded by a grant from the MCA M’s Health Project, is designed to move Mongolia from a treatment-oriented approach to medicine to a preventative-oriented approach to medicine. Due to the rise in non-communicable disease incidences, curative medicine is no longer economically viable. Implementation of the new masters of public health is being conducted in partnership with SPH HSUM and George Washington University. The funds are being put toward public health curriculum improvement, guided by George Washington University, and a one-year intensive public health training program for 36 existing physicians. The program is 50 percent classroom work and 50 percent fieldwork. The fieldwork is to be completed in candidates’ home regions, where they will collect data and analyze their local NCDI environment. Small grants will be given for operationalization of local public health improvement projects. Participants are required to publish one to two papers and return home, for a minimum of four years, to locally disseminate information acquired at SPH HSUM. To ensure maximum knowledge dispersal, participants were carefully selected to cover a variety of locations and medical disciplines; the selected candidates include doctors from each of the 21 aimags, the 9 districts, the Ulaanbaatar health department, the HSUM branch school, the School of Medicine and School of Nursing and one private medical school.



Thus, with the exchange of the signed agreements between D. Amarsaikhan, Vice President of Health Sciences University, Lauren Camp, George Washington University’s representative, and S. Bayarbaatar, Chief Executive Officer of the MCA-M, a significant step was made in building a healthcare system in Mongolia rooted in prevention and early diagnosis.