On  December 1, USAID/Vietnam Mission Director Michael Greene opened USAID’s IMPACT-MED National Medical Education Conference in Hue. At the event, he recognized the progress Vietnam has made this year towards its goal of a reformed medical education system, highlighting the rollout of a new and cutting-edge undergraduate curriculum in five of the country’s universities of medicine and pharmacy.  Nearly 500 participants from universities, hospitals, industry, and government joined the regional conference. This year’s theme was “Clinical Teaching to Transform Healthcare Professionals.” Clinical training is a central component of the curriculum reform that USAID is implementing and represents dramatic change - students will now be doing more hands-on work at school, and will have much more experience with direct patient care at graduation. This conference is the first of its kind in Vietnam and seeks to provide an annual forum for sharing innovations and advances in medical education in Vietnam and the Southeast Asian Region.

So What? This two-day conference stimulated discussions among medical education leaders, inspired further innovations, and fostered a community of medical educators invested in advancing medical education research and quality improvement.