Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #107193

Karl Umble, PhD, MPH, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Rosenau Hall, CB# 8165, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7400, 919.966.8214, kumble@sph.unc.edu, Janna Brooks, MA, Sustainable Management Development Program, Centers for Disease Control, 4770 Buford Highway, Mailstop K-01, Atlanta, GA 30041, and Amy Lowman, MPH, Department of Epidemiology, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill School of Public Health, School of Public Health, Chapel Hill, NC 27599.

CDC's Sustainable Management Development Program (SMDP) seeks to “improve the effectiveness of public health programs by strengthening management training capacity in the developing world” using a train-the-trainer model. Managers and professors from developing nations come to the CDC for six weeks of training. The goal of this training, known as the Management for International Public Health (MIPH) course, is to increase their capacity to train others in management skills, and to improve their management capacity. SMDP also sends its staff to help graduates develop or teach new programs and to consult.

This evaluation examined the MIPH graduates in Vietnam's National Tuberculosis Program (NTP), the training program they started in the NTP, and the impact of that training program on trainees and their provincial TB control organizations. The evaluation included interviews with key stakeholders and MIPH graduates, in addition to case studies of eight TB programs and hospitals in Vietnam that had sent trainees to the management course in Vietnam.

The model and long term SMDP support have given the NTP a “critical mass” of trained staff that can implement the course. MIPH trainees and provincial TB control program leaders extensively use the methods taught, especially Total Quality Management methods, resulting in short term improvements in indicators. Senior NTP leaders have seen the value of the new approaches, have made continuation of the training program a part of the next 5-year plan, and plan to seek funding or fund it internally if necessary. Recommendations are given for the NTP and SMDP.

Learning Objectives: After this session, participants will be able to

• Describe the CDC's Sustainable Management Development Program and its key principles for improving local public health management in developing countries
• Describe a brief history of the collaboration between Vietnam's National Tuberculosis Program (NTP) and the CDC's Sustainable Management Development Program to improve management within the NTP
• Explain the methods this evaluation used to investigate the effectiveness of the CDC's management development activities at the national level (Level
• and at the provincial level (Level
• during an evaluation performed in 2004
• Explain the findings at the national and provincial levels, with an emphasis on the impact of Total Quality Management training on the NTP's national staff and on the management practices used by provincial TB centers, and results
• Explain implications of the findings for management development activities in developing countries and in Vietnam

Keywords: Vietnam, Management and Sustainability

Related Web page: www.phppo.cdc.gov/od/smdp/

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.