International Partner Series: Belarusian Medical Academy of Postgraduate Education

Aug 20, 2021

We would like to introduce the Belarusian Medical Academy of Postgraduate Education , the OMI’s official partner in Belarus.

Belarus is located in Eastern Europe. With a population of 9.3 million, it is the twentieth-most populous country in Europe. The capital city, and simultaneously the largest city, is Minsk.

Founded in 1931, the State Educational Establishment “Belarusian Medical Academy of Postgraduate Education” is a unique educational and scientific center. For 85 years, it has been developing a system of continued education for doctors and specialists. Annually, more than 18,000 physicians from 52 departments and 81 specialties undergo advanced training courses. Approximately 500 physicians from Belarus and foreign countries do a PhD training and clinical residency program there. Currently, Aleksey Chukanov is the director of the Belarusian Medical Academy of Postgraduate Education.

The Academy consists of four faculties:

Surgery

The Faculty of Surgery was founded in 1963 on the basis of 10 departments and five surgical courses. The faculty consists of 15 departments and is the largest of the Academy. It carries out advanced training and retraining courses for surgeons and dentists.

Pediatrics

The Pediatrics Faculty was opened in order to improve medical care for children, teenagers, and to develop special care in accordance with modern requirements. Currently, the Pediatrics Faculty consists of 14 departments.

Therapy

The Faculty of Therapy is equipped with modern devices and teaching materials, providing therapists with a high level of postgraduate training.

Public Health and Healthcare

This faculty deals with the training of healthcare managers, specialists of preventive medicine, diagnostic technologies, health economics, general practitioners, and emergency physicians.

OMI and Belarus

For more than 10 years, the Belarusian Medical Academy of Postgraduate Education has been a partner of the Open Medical Institute. 465 fellowships and 26 observerships from Belarus have taken place since then, enabling physicians to gain and share knowledge in their respective medical specialties.

From September 2018 to September 2020, the academy was headed by Dzmitry Nitkin, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Associate Professor, and OMI fellow, who attended three OMI seminars in Urology and Medical Education, as well as completed a one-month OMI observership. He is also Deputy Chief of the Public Association “Belarusian Association of Urologists”, and was honored to be awarded a grant from the President of the Republic of Belarus in 2018.

A highlight of this collaboration was the 2019 OMI visiting professorship on the topic of Pediatric Emergency Medicine in Minsk, with OMI faculty member Dr. Burkhard Simma from the Landeskrankenhaus Feldkirch. 80 physicians listened to the lectures on-site and more than 300 physicians from Belarus attended the course online.

Our local coordinator in Belarus, Diana Petrushkevich-Hourou, is eager to assist interested physicians with their OMI applications and to answer any questions.