The pillars of health management education: lessons from the CEE experience

AUPHA faculty members have had the opportunity to provide health care executive training and to work in partnership with academic institutions in Central and Eastern Europe and in the New Independent States of the former Soviet Union. This article presents some observations on health management education that demonstrate the similarity in issues faced by programs in the U.S. and in CEE. The health management educational partnership program was designed to provide technical assistance to emerging health management programs in the CEE. The partnership program has been mutually beneficial for several reasons. The role of physicians in leadership and the management educational needs that result provide one example of an issue that health management educational programs must address. The emergence of the roles of other health professions and growing contribution that they will make has its parallel in the American ascendance of the role of interdisciplinary team in clinical decision making. The partnership and executive training experiences have caused U.S. partners to focus consciously on pedagogical methods. The nature of the issues faced by emerging CEE health management programs suggests that mutual support among programs in the region after the partnership program is necessary in order to provide a forum for debate. The focus of the debate should continue to be on the role of management in health reform, content of curriculum, research focus and pedagogical methods appropriate for health care management undergraduate and graduate programs. The result will be a strengthening of the health management academic discipline in the region. The future of the AUPHA should predicated on the same principles, the roots from which it has grown.