In remembrance of Uncle Ho’s teaching: “Continue to emulate good teaching and learning, no matter how difficult it is”, Military Medical Academy (hereafter the Academy), in the cause of construction, growth and development, always attaches importance to building its “3-in-1”faculty who are both red and professional, meeting the Academy’s missions and requirements of training, education, scientific research and treatment.

On March 10th 1949, Vietnam Military Medical College, the forerunner of current Military Medical Academy, organized the first medical training course, marking the turning point of the revolutionary Military Medicine. During its 70 years of construction and development, the Academy’s generations of cadres, lecturers and cadets always uphold the spirit of solidarity, initiative and creativity, making efforts to overcome difficulties and successfully complete the assigned tasks. The Academy has trained thousands of doctors and military medical personnel, hundreds of specialist masters and doctors; successfully studied and applied thousands of valuable scientific theses, making great contribution to the building and development of the Military Medical Branch and the country’s Health sector as well as the healthcare for soldiers and people. In particular, recent years witness the Academy’s breakthrough in training, scientific research and treatment, which transforms it into the leading medical center of the Army, of the whole country and one of the key national universities. In recognition of these outstanding achievements, the Academy was honoured with the Golden Star Medal, Ho Chi Minh Medal, the title of People’s Armed Forces Hero for three times, and many other noble rewards.

The Academy receiving the title of Hero of the People’s Armed Forces in the period of the war against French Colonialists

The results and achievements of the Academy in the past 70 years are a combination of many factors; in which, the building of “3-in-1” teaching staff plays a decisive role. Specifically, each teacher must have three basic qualities of a good teacher, a good doctor and a good scientific researcher.

A lecturer is a military medical officer exemplary in style, moral and excellent at profession

Being deeply imbued with Uncle Ho’s teaching: “Teachers must find out effective methodologies to help students understand quickly and make great progress” and being aware of the feature of military medicine, the Academy’s Party Committee and Board of Directors step up political and ideological education. As a result, officers and lecturers thoroughly grasp the position, role and responsibility of the noble mission of “building the Academy to become one of the leading universities in training high quality medical and pharmaceutical human resources for the Army and the whole country; a center for military medicine research and medical technology transfer as well as a high quality treatment one; developing international cooperation in medicine and pharmacy research, contributing greatly to the cause of national construction and defense, the development of Military Medicine, Health Sector and Vietnam’s health education system”. This helps every member of the Academy keep in mind the spirit of “ongoing teaching”, “teaching with vocational training” and set examples in action, particularly in examining and treating patients. Moreover, the Academy has established a very high standard for cadres and employees, especially military medical lecturers. Accordingly, a lecturer is required to be a truly military medical officer in all fields with a strong political will to receive and complete all assigned tasks successfully. Also, the teaching staff need to obtain comprehensive medical knowledge, good methodologies and scientific logic, career passion as well as to be a medical doctor exemplary in front of cadets and patients. To achieve that goal, the Academy has applied a strict process of recruiting lecturers. Most recruited teachers are residents who have formal training, sufficient professional capabilities, foreign language and informatics qualifications as prescribed. They also have worked at the Academy’s practice centers for at least two years. Besides, they have made great achievements in work, medical examination and treatment and published scientific articles and works. In order to become a lecturer, candidates must pass examinations on clinical practice, foreign language, informatics and carry out mock teaching in front of the Council of teachers; successfully work as a teaching assistant for at least two years before being recognized as official ones.

An international workshop on the impacts of Agent Orange on human and environment co-organized by the Academy and the Office No.701

At the same time, the Academy well conducts the planning, training and management of faculty members, ensuring the balance of quantity, structure, age, specialization and quality. Simultaneously, it diversifies forms and contents of training, raises qualification of the contingent of cadres and lecturers, especially post-graduate training, technical training and transfer in foreign countries. In particular, the Academy focuses on intensive training, building the contingent of medical lecturers with academic titles and high specialist qualification. It also aims at improving medical ethics and knowledge, pedagogical skills, foreign language, information technology and practical experience as well. To achieve high efficiency, the Academy implements synchronous measures in terms of organization, ideology and policy; encourages and creates favourable conditions for teachers to self-study and self-research; sends lecturers to hospitals and units for practice; participates in examination, treatment, consultation and attends military exercises; actively cooperates with prestigious domestic and foreign institutions to exchange high-quality officials and lecturers in teaching and scientific research, etc. As a result, the quality of the Academy’s faculty has made a significant breakthrough, meeting the requirement of its education and training in the short and long term.

A lecturer is a good doctor

Due to the specific medical training, the Academy follows the model of “Hospital-School”, so a lecturer also works as a doctor. This requires teachers to have a wide range of medical knowledge, professional qualifications, to make no mistakes in the treatment process, even the smallest. In order to achieve that goal, the Academy strengthens the training of professional qualifications for the contingent of doctors, sends them to prestigious hospitals inside and outside the country, such as Singapore, Japan, Germany, Australia, etc for technique study. At the same time, lecturers keep participating in training, fostering, transfer and practising spearhead techniques on organ transplant, vascular intervention, cancer, stem cell application, plastic surgery, etc. In line with improving professional qualifications, treatment skills, the Academy’s Party Committee and Board of Directors always put the emphasis on building professional ethics for the medical staff, and  well follow Uncle Ho’s teaching: “...a good doctor needs to be like a mother, wholeheartedly treating and serving sick and wounded soldiers...”.

Over the past few years, with the motto of teaching through treatment, the Academy has focused on building Military Hospital 103, Viet Nam National Institute Of Burns, Military Institute of Clinical Embryos as models of practice, both for clinical training and for treatment. Thus, lecturers - doctors have worked out new techniques and experiences for teaching as well as doing scientific research, partly improving the quality of education and treatment.  In 2017, Military Hospital 103 was honored in the "Vietnam's glory - A mark of 30 years of renewal" program. This is a great source of encouragement for the Academy's staff to contribute to the cause of training, medical examination and treatment for soldiers and people.

A lecturer is a good scientific researcher

One of the Academy’s ultimate goals is to become a key national school, a leading and prestigious scientific research institution of the Army and the Health sector. To this end, the Academy’s Party Committee and Board of Directors have actively expanded international cooperation, promoted scientific research and undertakings of learning through research and applied scientific research in solving teaching and treatment problems, so as to improve its training quality and build the Academy into a research institute. Accordingly, the Academy requires 100% lecturers to conduct scientific research; taking its results as a criterion for officers and teachers’ evaluation, promotion and appointment. For high effectiveness, a lot of mechanisms and policies have been provided to financially support lecturers who have international articles and scientific works; facilitating lecturers’ research projects at the grass-roots level, ministerial and national ones. On the other hand, the Academy attaches importance to investing in synchronous equipment and modern laboratories (at regional and international level) and research centers for lecturers to implement scientific ideas. Many scientific products have effectively served the teaching process and treatment. Over the past few years, the Academy has operated as a medical establishment to successfully research and apply the quintessence of traditional medicine and world advanced techniques in treatment, such as organ transplantation and surgery, endoscopy, in vitro fertilization, burn treatment, etc. Previously, the Academy staff just learned and followed instructions from foreign specialists. Nowadays, they have been qualified enough to directly exchange and cooperate with international experts. Since 1986, the Academy has completed nearly 3,300 scientific topics at all levels, including hundreds of State and Ministry-level projects and thousands of ideas of technical innovations. In particular, it has pioneered 5 successful organ transplants on people, 2 scientific works awarded Ho Chi Minh Prize, 2 scientific projects honoured with VIFOTEC Technical Innovation Award; 03 scientific topics awarded the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). In 2018, 56 international articles at the Academy have been published, 1 scientific work granted a patent by the United States. Currently, the Academy promotes basic research, the construction and upgrade of the Center for Military Medical Training and Research, the Military Medical Field Training Center for cadres, lecturers and cadets’ scientific research.

With a focus on building the “3-in-1” faculty, the Academy’s education, treatment and scientific research have gained outstanding achievements. Up to now, 100% cadres and lecturers are at postgraduate level with 18 Professors and 128 Associate Professors; 91 Doctors, 191 Masters; 28 specialist doctors I and II; 50 People's and excellent teachers; nearly 200 people's and elite medics as well as dozens of leading military medical experts and technical ones. This is an important human resource for the development of the Military Medical Academy in the coming years, meeting the requirements of building the Army and providing health care for people and soldiers.

Lieutenant General, Associate Professor Do Quyet, Ph.D.

Director of the Academy