Arin Balalian (AUA MPH 2011) Published an Article in the International Peer-reviewed Journal Human Resources for Health – 06-08-2014

 Dr. Arin A. Balalian, MD, MPH, and his co-authors Hambardzum Simonyan MD, Kim Hekimian PhD and Byron Crape PhD, have published an article in the journal Human Resources for Health. Human Resources for Health is an internationally ranked peer-reviewed journal focusing on planning, production, management and governance of human resources for health, particularly in low- and middle-income countries.

The article “Adapting continuing medical education for post-conflict areas: assessment in Nagorno Karabagh – a qualitative study” published in August 2014 Volume 12, Issue 39 is based on the findings of the qualitative study conducted in Nagorno Karabagh to evaluate a continuing medical education program for physicians in Nagorno Karabagh. The findings are important not only for Nagorno Karbagh but also for other post-conflict areas where infrastructures are destroyed and health human resources need trainings.

Dr. Balalian is the Monitoring and Evaluation officer in Mission East Armenia since May 2014. He is responsible for the overall Monitoring & Evaluation of “Improving HIV prevention counseling and testing among migrants in Armenia” project, periodic review of all indicators and data flow management. In 2011, Dr. Balalian joined the Ministry of Health (MoH) of the Republic of Armenia (RA) as a National Consultant for two months to assist the Deputy Minister of Health in creating a road map to develop Armenian National Health Strategy. In 2012-2014, Dr. Balalian worked in the Fund for Armenian Relief (FAR) as Healthcare and Social Programs Officer. He was involved in multiple projects. In this position Dr. Balalian worked with USAID supported HS-STAR project implemented by FAR aimed to train the physicians in all the provinces of Armenia. Dr. Balalian later joined the monitoring and evaluation team of the same project as evaluation assistant and the results of the evaluation were published in an international peer reviewed journal.  Dr. Balalian led the qualitative evaluation of one of the FAR core programs, which is a joint training project with the Armenian American Health Professionals Organization aimed to train the physicians from Nagorno Karabagh. He presented the results of this evaluation at the European Public Health Conference and the abstract was published in the European Journal of Public Health.  Dr. Balalian also worked on a program that aimed to address the malnutrition problem in Berd, Tavush region of Armenia, which is a border region. He led the assessment exploring the trends and determinants of malnutrition among preschool children in Berd region. Dr. Balalian earned his MPH degree in 2011 from the AUA School of Public Health and his MD degree from Yerevan State Medical University in 2010.

The publication is now available as “Online First” at http://www.human-resources-health.com/content/12/1/39/abstract#