Eurasian Medical Education Program Receives $2.1 Million Gift From Bill And Melinda Gates

WASHINGTON -- The American College of Physicians-American Society of Internal Medicine (ACP-ASIM) and the Institute for Health Policy Analysis are pleased to announce a $2.1 million gift from Bill and Melinda Gates. The grant from the William H. Gates Foundation will support the Eurasian Medical Education Program on tuberculosis in the Russian Federation. The ongoing program combines professional education with assistance in the development of disease control programs in each of three regions of Russia - Ekaterinburg, Kazan and Khabarovsk.

"The Eurasian Medical Education Program began more than a year ago as a result of a commitment by the ACP-ASIM to assist Russian post-graduate medical education efforts in selected clinical areas and in a series of regions across Russia," said Edward J. Burger, Jr., M.D., Sc.D., president of the Institute for Health Policy Analysis. "American internists, skilled in certain areas of medicine, travel to Russian centers on a voluntary basis to share knowledge and skills with their colleagues." The U.S. Agency for International Development has also provided partial funding of the Eurasian Medical Education Program.

The program on tuberculosis will complement and cooperate thoroughly with other donor and professional organizations concerned with the tuberculosis challenge in Russia. The program should properly be thought of as part of a 10-year effort to substantially reduce the threat of tuberculosis in the Russian Federation.

The American College of Physicians-American Society of Internal Medicine, founded in 1915, is the nation's largest medical specialty organization whose membership comprises 120,000 internal medicine physicians. The Institute for Health Policy Analysis, a 501©(3) not-for-profit organization, established first in 1981 as part of the Georgetown University Medical Center, developed and has managed the Eurasian Medical Education Program.