Management Teaching Methods

• Produce at least five case studies over a three-year period to serve as both research and teaching methods.
• Assess curriculum for health management education and develop practice-based educational programs.
• Integrate management education with practice.
• Increase access to information about health services education and management.

Health Management and Policy

• Enhance knowledge in specific areas of health management.
• Upgrade management skills, including interpersonal communications skills.
• Develop increased capacity of Romanian partner institutions to provide technical assistance in health care management and policy.
• Participate in local, regional and international conferences that broaden the base of experience and contacts in health management and policy.

• A Memorandum of Understanding was signed on February 12 between the University of Chicago, the Institute of Health Services Management and the Department of Public Health and Management at the University of Medicine and Pharmacy "Carol Davila."
• Partnership representatives attended AIHA's first Annual CEE Partnership Conference. The conference was held in Budapest, Hungary in May.
• In June, partnership representatives attended the annual meetings of the Association of University Programs in Health Administration (AUPHA) and the Association of Health Services Research (AHSR) in Atlanta, GA. The AUPHA annual meeting focused on "Leadership for Community Health Partnerships," while the theme of the AHSR meeting was "Health Services Research: Implications for Policy, Health Care Delivery and Clinical Practice."
• In September, three representatives from the University of Chicago traveled to Bucharest to launch a program of case study research, teaching, and publication for health management and policy. In Bucharest, they identified case study topics and sites, convened a case studies team. The partners conducted a three-day workshop on case studies which addressed issues such as teaching methods, research and writing, and case study production.
• Also in September, an Information Coordinator from each of the Romanian partnership institutions attended AIHA's first workshop for CEE information coordinators, in Tallinn, Estonia, as part of AIHA's Learning Resource Center project. AIHA staff presented a training curriculum that included instruction on the use of Internet applications such as Netscape and Eudora, copies of which were distributed at the workshop. The curriculum also covered Web searching and Web page design. During the workshop, information coordinators started creating Web pages for their own institutions. AIHA staff also introduced the Learning Resource Center Project workplan and led "training-of-trainers" group exercises to emphasize the need to make Internet access universally available at their institutions.
• Three faculty from the University of Chicago conducted a workshop in Bucharest designed to develop practice-based management education and to upgrade management skills in the area of interpersonal communication. The workshop included experiential learning using health care and interpersonal consulting techniques and methods for applying these approaches to the Romanian curriculum. Forty Romanian participants, mostly practicing physicians, attended the workshop.

• The University of Chicago partnership representative attended the International Conference on Convergences in the Reforms of Health Care Systems, organized by the Romanian Association of Public Health And Management. He delivered a lecture on "New Approaches in the Payment of Suppliers."
• Partnership representatives participated in AIHA's 2nd Annual CEE Partnership Conference in Zagreb, Croatia in May. The theme of the conference was "Evidence-Based Medicine."
• In July, four faculty members from the University of Chicago along with their Romanian counterparts conducted a one-week health reform workshop. The workshop was conducted for 42 new health district officers in charge of implementing the government's new health reform program. The health district officers received training on leadership and management, team building and communications, and financial management. In addition, the team met with officials and began developing two new case studies in health management to be added to the three already developed by the partnership.
• Also in July, the two partnership Information Coordinators participated in AIHA's second Information Coordinators' workshop in Krk, Croatia. The main objective of the workshop was to help information coordinators begin applying various technologies to the practical framework of their partnership institutions by transforming the Learning Resource Centers (LRCs) into centers for interactive learning, conferencing and communication. To encourage this transformation, the workshop emphasized the application of technology and information through sessions on Advanced Internet Applications (such as chat, newsgroups, data conferencing and multimedia files) and evidence-based medicine.
• Five Romanians and two US faculty participated in a Health Policy Seminar organized by AIHA in Prague in October. The seminar involved participants from all five of AIHA's HME partnerships. Participants compared the status of health policy in both the US and CEE contexts, discussed general theses of policy analysis in the health sector, considered various approaches to teaching policy analysis skills, and discussed the use of comparative policy analysis as part of health management education curricula.
• Also in October, two faculty from the University of Chicago conducted a health economics and health insurance workshop at the Romania Public Health Association meetings in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Thirty-five participants from the Romania-Chicago partnership, the Cluj-Philadelphia partnership, and invited health professionals attended. In addition to the health economics and health insurance workshop, a Romanian partner presented on the Romanian health insurance law.

• Four US faculty traveled to Bucharest in February and conducted workshops on organizational management, quality improvement, and social policy formulation. The workshops were designed to complement the implementation of health reform, especially in the implementation of health insurance organizations and the formulation of the College of Physicians.
• In March, Chicago-Romania partnership representatives and officials from the Romanian Ministries of Health and Education participated in a health care workforce conference in Budapest entitled Shaping the Infrastructure of Health Professions organized by AIHA. This gathering of over 100 senior government officials, academic administrators, scholars and health policy decision makers was designed for extended discussion of issues related to the development of the health care workforce in the CEE, and the corresponding US experience.
• US and Romanian partnership representatives attended AIHA's 3rd Annual CEE Partnership Conference in Bucharest, Romania in May. HME partners also participated in specially-designed sessions for HME partnerships. One of the main themes of the conference was partnership sustainability after AIHA/USAID funding.
• In June, three Romanian partnership representatives attended the annual conferences of the Association of University Programs in Health Administration (AUPHA) and the Association for Health Service Research (AHSR) in Washington, DC. The AUPHA conference focused on how new technologies are shaping health care administration, research and education, while the theme of the AHSR conference was implications of health services research for health care policy, delivery and practice.
• An Information Coordinator from each Romanian partnership institution participated in AIHA's third annual training workshop for Information Coordinators from the 36 Learning Resource Centers (LRCs) in CEE. The main themes of this workshop, held in Kosice, Slovakia, were information management and sustainability of the LRCs. Participants learned about database design, improving time management, developing annual budgets, and generating internal and external sources of funding.
• In September, ten Romanians participated in a Case Studies Development Workshop in Bucharest, Romania. The workshop was attended by representatives of all five AIHA HME partnerships. At the workshop, participants learned how to develop and write case studies as a didactic approach to teaching health management education.
• The partnership opened Health Management Education Resource Centers at both Romanian partnership institutions. The Resource Centers provide access for students and faculty to modern management literature and research through the Internet.

• In late-April, Romanian partners welcomed prospective HME partners from Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia and Georgia during a study tour through Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). During the visit, presentations and discussions covered three main topics: Romania's health system and health care reform; health professions education (particularly medical and management education) and the specific curricula and activities of the Romanian partner institutions; and the role, activities and outcomes of the Romanian HME partnership.
• US and Romanian partners organized a health management workshop in Bucharest, May 17-20, attended by approximately 50 participants - mostly doctors working on their master's degree in health care management. Presentations and discussions focused on effective communications, team building, total quality management, practice guidelines, payment for health care services, and quality as a political issue.

Management Teaching Methods

• The partnership completed five country-specific case studies. The case studies are entitled: The Evaluation of Wound Infections in a Surgery Department; The Impact of Introduction of a New Information System on the Structure of the District Hospital Sibiu; Health Services Reform in the Brasov District; Family Planning Case Study; and How the College of Physicians Was Founded. The cases have been incorporated into partners' teaching activities and have been well received by trainees. In addition, the Romanian partners have developed the necessary skills to prepare additional case studies.
• The partnership has developed a cadre of outstanding faculty within the Romanian partnership institutions. These individuals have participated in intensive courses both at the University of Chicago and in Romania, and are now playing central roles in reform of the Romanian health care system.
• Through exchanges and workshops, the partnership also concentrated on the issue of curriculum development for Health Management Education. These activities have helped support the creation of Master's programs at each Romanian partner institution.
• The partners were able to identify and provide access to literature, technology and databases for use in health services education and management.

Health Management and Policy

• The partnership has increased expertise in health management by having Romanian partners attend University of Chicago courses for a ten-week quarter. In all, 18 professionals and trainees participated in this aspect of the partnership, studying in intensive programs of coursework and independent study designed to prepare them to assume leadership roles in health management teaching, research, health policy design and analysis, and consulting. The exchanges introduced students to a different, interactive style of pedagogy that they, in turn, can apply in their roles as instructors in Romania.
• On completing courses at the University of Chicago, one bright Romanian student was offered a scholarship at the University of Chicago to pursue a doctorate in health management.
• Two partnership representatives have written papers that have been published in the Journal of Health Administration Education as a result of the partnership. The first was a discussion of policy analysis in Central and Eastern European countries and the second described health management education in Romania.
• The partnership has also been active in creating links to major professional associations in Romania and abroad.