The HFA model for the training and development of leaders in healthcare identifies the following main pillars for its Healthcare Leaders: leadership, community engagement, quality and research training, and medical knowledge and skills (the medical knowledge and skills pillar will be delivered by our strategic partners at the Henar Foundation). The program starts with an intensive bootcamp (the Healthcare Academy), which lays the foundations for all four pillars. The four pillars will then continue to be taught in an integrated manner throughout the program, culminating in the presentation of a capstone project. Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) will be a fundamental component of the overall program, with M&E pertaining to the effectiveness of the program itself, as well as integrated into each pillar. The end of the fellowship, however, will not signal the end of learning. Graduated Healthcare Leaders will enter a network of alumni, who will continue to learn with and from each other. Graduates of the HFA program will be prepared to care for the evolving primary care needs of patients in rural Armenia as transformational providers and community champions who possess the following skills:

• Leading a team of diverse healthcare professionals

• Advocating for patients, communities, and the field of medicine

• Understanding healthcare governance

• Being a motivator in the community and a champion for primary care reform in Armenia

• Possessing the ability to be an effective educator and mentor

• Initiating solutions to healthcare challenges that go beyond clinical care delivery

I. Leadership

HFA simultaneously recognizes that a good rural physician needs to be a good leader, and that Armenia needs physicians who are leaders. A good physician is a leader on multiple levels, from leading a team in a clinic, to leading a community engagement program, to leading a project to improve health outcomes, to being a leader in advocating for the health of the community. On a higher level, Armenia needs physician leaders - leaders who have both on-the-ground experience and understand systems level issues - to be able to head clinics, align the needs of Armenia with the work of non-governmental organizations, and to engage in regional and national level government strategy and implementation.

II. Community Engagement

HFA recognizes that engaging the most important stakeholders - local residents and communities - is a fundamental component of improving health outcomes. Our Healthcare Leaders will work, from the beginning, with their communities to understand their health belief systems and their needs, with the aim of co-designing and co-producing a path to better health for local residents. 

III. Quality & Research Training

The main goal of HFA is to develop individuals who will be drivers in improving healthcare systems, and ultimately, the health of the residents of Armenia. Learning how to study, develop, and implement improvements in healthcare on a small scale is fundamental to being able to drive change on a larger scale. 

IV. Medical Knowledge & Skills

The medical knowledge and skills pillar will start during the Healthcare Academy and will be delivered by our strategic partners at the Henar Foundation. This training will include skills related to taking a medical history, physical exam, and patient-doctor communication, as well as principles of clinical practice, data literacy, use of literature and evidence-based medicine, and the roles of social determinants of health and mental health in primary care. They will also learn the appropriate management of serious acute illness and injury, whether related to chronic disease (e.g. asthma, diabetes, cardiac disease) or trauma (e.g. from falls, motor vehicle accidents, war). The training will then continue during the fellowship term. The teaching will utilize multiple modalities, implementing many of the tools familiar to medical providers in Europe and the United States. These modalities will include, but are not limited to:

• Didactic and interactive teaching sessions conducted by local and international specialists 

• Case presentations

• Morbidity & Mortality conferences

• Topic presentations by fellows

• Precepting and mentorship by local and international specialists 

• Capstone project meetings

Sources of teaching resources will include:

• Local and international qualified specialists

• Written and Video resources from leading organizations in medical education, such as the American Academy of Family Practice, American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Physicians, British Medical Journal, the Journal of the American Medical Association, and the New England Journal of Medicine

• Curricula shared by residencies in the United States

• Resources such as PubMed, Dynamed, and UpToDate

V. Capstone Project

Each Healthcare Leader will research, design, run, implement and report on a capstone project which will integrate all four pillars and be the culmination of the program.  They will need to use their skills and knowledge to bring together stakeholders in the community and work with them to identify areas of concern, identify one focus area, and work together to improve the community’s health.  Each Healthcare Leader will have a mentor who will be able to help guide them through the process.

Arts & Medicine Module:

As part of our larger leadership program, we offer a special Arts & Medicine module. These workshops will introduce historic collaborations between artists and doctors that advanced the understanding of the human body, as well as hands-on and "eyes-on" art exercises and art classes that build new leadership and team building skills. Our fellows will then create their own works of art which will be exhibited at the end of the program. The purpose of this Art & Medicine module is to help healthcare practitioners develop their skills in accurate visual observations, empathy, teamwork, emotional intelligence; the importance of enhanced visual vocabulary in contemporary medical practice; and to be able to identify unconscious bias in decision-making.