Forty-nine healthcare professionals from 10 countries have come to Korea to learn the country’s advanced medical system and clinical skills.
Korea Foundation for International Healthcare (KOFIH) held an opening ceremony for this year’s Lee Jong-wook Fellowship Program at the Westin Chosun Seoul, Thursday.
KOFIH has operated the fellowship program as a mid- to long-term training program since 2007 for healthcare professionals from developing countries, according to the will of the late Lee Jong-wook, former director-general of the World Health Organization. The program has trained about 1,000 healthcare professionals from 29 countries so far.
The Lee Jong-wook Fellowship Program seeks to enhance trainees’ practical skills through customized mid- to long-term training. KOFIH provides preliminary education before the program and post-program evaluation tools so that its support for healthcare workers can be sustainable.
The trainees will stay in Korea for up to one year to receive in-depth training in various institutions for clinical care, teaching healthcare professionals, public health policies, disease research, executive education, and biomedical engineering.
The 10 countries which sent trainees this year are Cambodia, Ethiopia, Ghana, Laos, Mongolia, Mozambique, Myanmar, Tanzania, Uganda, and Uzbekistan. They are part of the more than 110 trainees from 14 countries who will visit Korea for the program this year.
“The Lee Jong-wook Fellowship Program is practical and effective because trainees can receive education in the desired sector in each country.” KOFIH President Choo Moo-jin said. “They learn what they want to learn, which brings better results.”
After trainees return to their countries, each Korean institution that offered education continues to support them, which helps not only individual trainees but their institutions and countries, Choo added.
Thavone Chanthasone, a professor at the Faculty of Medical Science of the National University of Laos who participates in the Lee Jong-wook Fellowship Program, said he came to Seoul to learn Korean medical school’s curriculums and reinforce medical education in Laos.
“I will spread newly learned knowledge and skills after I return to my country. It will be an opportunity to upgrade Lao doctors’ knowledge,” he said.