YEREVAN — The World Health Organization (WHO) and HENAR Foundation convened a Healthcare Policy Summit on January 27, inviting all major Armenian healthcare institutions to coordinate programs in postgraduate medical education. In attendance were representatives of key institutional players, including the Ministry of Health (MoH), Ministry of Education (MoE), Yerevan State Medical University (YSMU), National Institute of Health (ANIH), Boston University – Armenia Medical Partnership (BU-AMP), Asian Development Bank, and many Yerevan hospitals.
The purpose of the summit, titled “Health and Education Reforms: A Policy Dialogue on Postgraduate Medical Education,” was to facilitate a high-level, cross-sectoral policy dialogue that links Armenia’s Universal Healthcare and Primary Healthcare reform agendas with health workforce development, with a specific focus on postgraduate medical education. The summit was designed to bring together policymakers and development agencies to overcome obstacles in developing healthcare in Armenia, and to coordinate priority-setting and decision-making processes.
HENAR co-founder Arman Voskerchyan opened the summit, welcoming all participants to this milestone event in healthcare policy collaboration. He noted the importance of identifying key gaps and bottlenecks related to healthcare standards, training environments, licensing, accreditation, faculty capacity and healthcare workforce distribution.
Lena Nanushyan, First Deputy Minister of Health, presented the MoH’s plan for the development of Universal Healthcare for Armenia, which started a staged rollout on January 1. The government now provides many healthcare services free-of-charge for the disabled, children under 18, and the poor – and as of January 1, the elderly over 65. Even so, the government still cannot afford to pay for key services including most lab draws, x-rays and advanced imaging, and all but very basic medications. The goal for the next several years is to gradually extend the range of services to these existing groups, and then slowly expand coverage to all Armenians until the nation has true universal healthcare.
“The Armenian government has been continuously working to address gaps in healthcare… and we have learned that you cannot tackle large problems in isolation — activities are interconnected, requiring a systems change,” said Nanushyan. “A competency-based residency program has been identified as a key priority as it is central to enabling doctors to better serve their patients. We want to ensure physicians graduate with strong, practical skills, so they can effectively address patients’ needs and deliver high-quality care.”
Sargis Hayotsyan, Deputy Minister of Education (MoE) and chairman of its Higher Education and Science Committee, introduced the Ministry’s main priorities for 2026. “Our purpose in participating in this event is to better understand how residency education is perceived within the policymakers’ community and among our international partners, and to present the regulatory provisions outlined in the Law on Higher Education and Science,” said Hayotsyan.
