FACULTY HISTORY

The faculty of Medicine is one of the most distinctive with its various academic programs among the other faculties at Akaki Tsereteli State University. There are also implementing the joint programs, different types of interesting projects and a lot of extra curriculum activities.
The faculty of Medicine, as the part of the University, was established in 1995 and it fully recognizes the mission and main values of the University.
The faculty of Medicine became the member of an International Association for Medical Education (www.amee.org) in 2014.
In 2015 the faculty was placed on the web-resources of the higher medical schools of World Healthcare Organization (WHO), the World Federation of Medical Education (WFME) and the International Medical Educational Directory (IMED).
Faculty of Medicine was granted with the new building and modern technologies within the Tempus Project in 2016.
The new building was established specially for the Faculty of Medicine in 2017
There are 12 professors, 12 associated professors, 13 assistant professors, 2 emeritus, including experts and consultants of different international organizations.
Administration of the faculty:
• The dean of the faculty- professor Irine Pkhakadze.
• The deputy- associated professor Maka Javakhia.
• Head of Quality Assurance Service – associated professor Nato Alavidze.

Faculty’s structural elements are two educational departments:
• Department of Clinical Medicine – Head of the Department professor Tamar Valishvili.
• Department of Pharmacy and Dentistry- Head of the Department professor Tengiz Lobzhanidze.
There are following higher medical education programs at the Faculty of Medicine:
One-cycle programs: Medicine, Medicine + PBL, English-language “Medicine”, “Dentistry”.
Bachelor programs – “Pharmacy”, “Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation “,
Masters Programs: “Pharmacy”, “Public Health and Healthcare Policy”, “Biomedical Engineering”.

One-cycle higher medical education program aims to prepare the specialist with medical academic degree, having sufficient knowledge of basic medical disciplines and general clinical skills needed for working at medical institutions, also using and preserving moral values and ethical principles in practice.
Program objective is to enable students:
• With the acquisition of the basic courses of the major specialty;
• With the acquisition of obligatory and optional courses provided by the curriculum;
• General clinical skills;
• Ability of critical assessment of scientific and clinical innovations and their use in clinical decision making;
• Acquiring written and verbal communicative skills;
• Knowledge of minimum one foreign language at B2 level;
• Knowledge in basics of healthcare legislation and their application in practice;
• Understanding of continuous medical education and professional development.

Program gives students deep understanding of fundamental medical disciplines, academic and professional skills and accordingly provides basic theoretical and practical knowledge needed for a competitive specialist in the labor market.

Actuality of the program:
Healthcare of the population is one of the most important issues and simultaneously huge attention is paid to preparing the professionals who solve the problems related to health. Nowadays learning outcome oriented education is considered to be the best model as it is based on international standards of medical education and accordingly it is actual to design and implement the program which provides successful, competitive specialist.

Employment opportunities
The clinician
• has the right to go on studying for PhD or obtain the right to work as a doctor having passed the unified national certification exam;
• is able to work as a junior doctor in any organization related to the population healthcare and medical service;
• is able to carry out research or teaching theoretical subjects or other job not related to the independent medical practice (hospitals, research centers);
• is able to be employed in national and international pharmacological companies and the centers of medical expertise.

Since 2012-2013 academic years, students from different countries (Nigeria, Iraq, India, Lebanon, Syria and Estonia) are enrolled in the one-cyclee English-language program of Medicine.

The faculty is actively involved in the international projects of “TEMPUS”. As a result some new educational programs are designed:
One-cycle higher educational program “Medicine + PBL”, in which the integration quality of basic and clinical subjects are extremely high and Problem Based Learning is implemented. The program is formed within the international project – “Establishment of Supra-Regional Network of the National Centers in Medical Education, Focused on PBL and Virtual Patients”. During the teaching process on the program are used specially equipped auditoriums. The auditoriums are equipped with co-sponsored by “TEMPUS”.

Master joint program “Biomedical Engineering” is designed within TEMPUS IV - BME-ENA Biomedical Engineering Education Tempus Initiative in Eastern Neighboring Area (Project number: 543904-TEMPUS-1-2013-1-GR-TEMPUS-JPCR) with active involved European partners and is implemented with Tbilisi State Medical University and Georgian Technical University. The partner universities are also actively involved. The graduates will be awarded with a diploma, which confirms joint qualification. The graduates of the program will participate with doctors in the process of equipping hospitals with medical techniques and they will be able to work complex medical equipment and systems in clinics and other medical establishments.

The first term of the program is implemented at Akaki Tsereteli State University and includes to learn theoretical basic medical educational courses, legal regulatory laws applicable to health care and technology of healthcare.
The second term of the program is implemented at Tbilisi State Medical University. The course includes the study of the physical basis of widely used diagnostic and medicinal methods in medicine.
The third term is implemented at Georgian Technical University and includes learning medical electronics, biomedical signals and the management of medical systems.
The fourth term includes the Master’s thesis, which is based on offered themes from university and a student’s personal choice.
Besides the theoretical and practical courses based on educational programs, which is implemented at university, the medical students also have practice in well-equipped basic clinics.

The collegiate atmosphere of the faculty helps students to acquire valuable theoretical knowledge, to develop essential professional skills and to make university life more interesting. With the initiation of students’ projects and the events are held with famous and successful doctors in informal environment. Beginning of the semester ATSU usually organizes “Welcome Party” for students, as for the “New Year” ATSU medical faculty celebrates with “Christmas Party” in which students are actively involved and participating in different activities: games, performances, competitions and so on.
Modern challenges in higher medical education require more creativity and solving interdisciplinary problems. The main object of the faculty is to prepare competent doctors.
Accordingly, the administration of the faculty has the following perspectives: to work out new Bachelor and Master programs, to develop the infrastructure for Clinical and Research Skills Center, to implement residency programs, to broaden the partnership with foreign partners, to attract the foreign students, to participate in international projects, to establish and equip clinic of university, to modernize informational technologies.
If you decide to enroll at ATSU, be sure that it will be the right decision. To get further more information, feel free to contact us.