The success of HLI’s medical trainings depends upon the support of the Lao Ministry

of Health and provincial health administrators who have made the commitment and

have the capacity to affect positive change. Through mutual respect and open-

ended dialogue, the Lao Ministry of Health and Health Leadership International have

forged an optimal working relationship where each partner assumes responsibility for

designated tasks and roles.

Lao Partner Responsibilities

• Leadership and staff support from each Provincial Hospital Director that hosts an

HLI training

• Guidance in creating training curricula that addresses local health concerns, medical

education gaps and areas of greatest need

• Providing classrooms and secure office space in a Provincial Hospital for each

training

• Designating bi-lingual Lao physicians to serve as co-trainers

• Selecting and inviting rural health workers to attend the trainings

• Assisting with Lao translation of curriculum materials

Health Leadership International Responsibilities

• Recruitment of medical faculty volunteers who pay their own expenses

• Cultural competency training for team members

• Preparation of course curriculum materials

• Lao translation of curriculum materials and community health guides

• Publication and printing of books and curriculum materials

• Fund-raising to cover the expense of curriculum materials, medical supplies, per

diem/travel costs for rural students and co-trainer honoraria

• Trip logistics

Recognizing Lao’s need for Laotian medical education training materials, HLI created and

provided Lao/English curricula, PowerPoints, and medical texts to health professionals we

trained. These valuable resources for Lao health practitioners, especially those serving remote

areas, as there are few other health education resources in the Lao language.

HLI medical educators worked with Lao translators to provide linguistically and culturally

appropriate curriculum materials for all their Clinical, Leadership and Medical English courses.

Health Leadership International continues to strengthen these translations so that each trainee

can build on their medical knowledge with bi-lingual course materials. This includes two

outstanding Lao translated community health guides found on the Language Hub at Hesperian Foundation,

Where There Is No Doctor and Where Women Have No Doctor. In addition, Lao students

attending our English for Health Professional classes received a copy of the collaborative, HLI

and Momobooks , English for Health Professionals endorsed by the Lao Ministry of Health.

HLI is committed to medical manpower development.

A key ingredient in Health Leadership International’s planning was to

develop a Medical Education model that would be self-sustaining and not depend upon non-

Lao educators coming to Lao PDR over an indefinite period. To address this concern, HLI

adopted a Train-the-Trainer model to develop an in-country cadre of physician-trainers who

could carry the work forward.

Our Train-the-Trainer Model

Health Leadership International pairs each faculty member with a bi-lingual Lao physician to co-

teach the course. At the conclusion of the training, all co-trainers are given the complete course

curriculum, including all PowerPoints, translated into Lao. This enables

them to teach others and extend the reach of the training after the Health Leadership

International leaves.

HLI became a federal fiscal agent and was awarded over a period of ten years federal grants

from the U.S. Department of State; Weapons Removal and Abatement Department. These

grants focused on funding medical education for healthcare professionals in affected UXO

regions in the Lao PDR.

HLI’s Impact from Funding Received from

the Department of State: 2012-2020

Health Leadership International (HLI), a Seattle based NGO, received a total of $1,040,000

grant funding in two grants from the US Department of State for portable ultrasound,

emergency clinical and primary trauma care and suicide prevention training for District Healthcare

providers in UXO affected districts of the Lao PDR between 2012 and 2020. HLI’s focus was

medical healthcare provider capacity building and improved diagnostic, curative and

emergency clinical medicine in the rural areas of the Lao PDR, working in partnership with

the Ministry of Health and the University of Health Sciences and the three Colleges of

Health Sciences in the Lao PDR.

HLI and its team of volunteer medical physicians, physician assistants and PhD medical

educators donated over $827,500 of volunteer professional time, airfare and travel costs

to these medical training projects in the Lao PDR during those years. The grant

funding from the Department of State was used to support our in country work and paid for portable

ultrasound equipment, medical supplies,translations, and travel and per-diem for Lao medical training attendees

and hysician co-trainers.