Rector Dr. Béla Merkely recently completed a visit to three universities in the U.S. state of Massachusetts, yielding new cooperation agreements. As a result of the talks, Semmelweis University and Harvard Medical School (HMS) will cooperate on HMS bringing one of its summer courses to Budapest. Discussions with the University of Massachusetts focused on the details of launching a student exchange program in spring next year, while an exchange of experiences could start with Boston University, in the areas of the curriculum and technology transfer.
The delegation of Semmelweis University visited Harvard Medical School (HMS), the graduate medical school of Harvard University – currently ranked the sixth best university in the world (Times Higher Education, 2019) –, where they met among others the executives in charge of postgraduate education and foreign programs. These officials also presented the postgraduate courses Harvard offers for physicians, researchers and other health care providers. In addition to two Master’s degree programs (Master of Healthcare Quality and Safety, Master of Medical Science in Clinical Investigation), the institution also offers a wide range of certificate programs in areas including clinical research, patient safety and quality, cancer biology and therapeutics, executive leadership for surgeons, pediatric leadership, medical education, health care leadership and management, leadership in clinical disciplines and diabetes. These programs help professionals acquire the latest skills and knowledge in the field, combining the opportunities provided by e-learning with traditional teaching methods. Read more about HMS courses here.
At the talks, the parties discussed the possibility of HMS and Semmelweis University cooperating to bring one of HMS’s summer courses to Budapest, which would target the countries of the Central and Eastern Europe region. Harvard has not organized such courses yet in this region. The possible topics the course could focus on include clinical research, scientific writing and training for educators. Rector Dr. Béla Merkely was also welcomed in the campus’s historic Wadsworth House by Harvard’s interim university marshal Dr. Margot N. Gill. Here the rector signed Harvard’s guest book, thanking the university for welcoming the delegation of the 250-year-old Semmelweis University.
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During the visit to the University of Massachusetts (UMass), the parties finalized the details of an earlier agreed upon student exchange program between the two universities. According to the plans, sixth-year students of Semmelweis University would go to Boston to practice emergency medicine, while first and second-year UMass students would come to Semmelweis to take part in a pathology practice. The exchange program is planned to start in the spring of 2020, with participating students spending three months at the partner institution. The exchange program is supported in part by the Hungarian Medical Association of America (HMAA) and in part by Campus Mundi. At UMass, Dr. Béla Merkely also held talks among others with Dr. Greg Volturo, the chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine, and visited the catheter labs at the site as well.
The goal of the visit to Boston University (BU) was to secure a new basis for the decade-long relationship that has been ongoing with the private university. The rector held talks with professors Dr. Brian Jack and Dr. Jonathan Woodson, who have been fully empowered by BU’s rector to formulate a declaration of intent on cooperation with Semmelweis University. Dr. Brian Jack, the chairman of the Department of Family Medicine at BU, earlier spent a year in Hungary, and in addition to growing fond of the country, he also published an important paper on the system of family medicine in Hungary. Dr. Jonathan Woodson, professor of surgery and the head of the university-wide Institute for Health System Innovation and Policy, previously served in the Obama administration as an assistant secretary responsible for the health affairs of the active-service U.S. armed forces. A verbal agreement was reached on the mobility of researchers between the two universities, and the parties also agreed to start an exchange of experiences between the two institutions, focusing primarily on the curriculum and technology transfer. For Semmelweis University, it is important to learn more about how these areas function at BU, which is ranked 74th in the world by THE. It was also mentioned that BU spends 60–70% of its budget on research and innovation.
Pálma Dobozi
Translation: Tamás Deme
Source and photo: Tünde Czétényi
