The Foundation for Advancement of International Medical Education and Research (FAIMER), a member of Intealth, offers longitudinal faculty development programs (LFDPs) in health professions education (HPE) and leadership through its International FAIMER Institute (IFI) in the United States and FAIMER Regional Institutes (FRIs) globally. FAIMER fosters mutual collaboration and delineates shared responsibilities for FRI development in partnership with local institutions, using an adapted hub-and-spoke organizational design. This paper describes FAIMER's model, its sustainability, and its impacts at individual, institutional, and national levels. IFI was launched in 2001 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as a 2-year

Program theories have not been extensively used in evaluating faculty development programs in medical education. Ample evidence shows that a well-formulated program theory plays a pivotal role in program implementation and evaluation. Program theory links activities and expected outcomes using a logical process showing how they lead to long-term goals. It also develops appropriate metrics or indicators for assessing if those outcomes and activities really occurred. In this study, FAIMER's theory of change was adopted as a framework for evaluation. Survey data from FAIMER Fellows was used to assess the effectiveness of FAIMER's faculty development program in meeting the goal of improving health professions education. We used structural equation modeling to examine the association among outcomes mapped out in our theory of change and their association with improving field of health professions education. The study results indicated that FAIMER's faculty development program appeared to have positively influenced advancement of multiple facets of health professions education as envisaged in our theory of change. Using a theoretical framework for evaluating a program helped us identify the specific areas of outcomes that need to be strengthened for program improvement as well as provided us with a data-driven evaluation framework to measure program progress.

BackgroundGiven the significant gap in International Electives (IEs) opportunities for African health professions students, ECFMG|FAIMER through its Global Educational Exchange in Medicine and other health professions (GEMx) program launched a pilot African regional elective exchange program in 2016. During IEs, students have a choice of discipline they would like to learn, and the location, often at a host institution in a different country. This study provides an overview of health professional students’ experiences through participation in the pilot GEMx regional elective exchange program in Africa.MethodsThis was a quasi-experimental, single-group post-test-only study using the survey method. Data were collected online using a self-administered survey through SurveyMonkey. Students (N = 107) received emails with a link to the survey as they completed the electives. The survey was open for a month for each student and weekly reminders were sent.ResultsThe survey obtained a 100% response rate. All postgraduate and undergraduate students from various professional training programs (n = 107) reported gaining knowledge that was applicable back home. Over 43.4% (n = 46) reported having formed professional networks that are valuable for career progression. More than half 59.8% (n = 64) gained clinical skills and learned various procedures while 26.2% (n = 28) recognized the need for increased reliance on history taking for disease diagnosis. More than a third, 34.6% (n = 37) appreciated the different cultures and the effect of cultural beliefs on health outcomes.Discussion and conclusionsThe GEMx regional elective exchange program in Africa provided a useful platform that enabled health professional students at undergraduate and postgraduate levels in their respective disciplines to gain enhanced perspectives on health issues, acquire clinical knowledge and skills applicable to their home country, strengthen personal and professional development, and develop positive attitude change in various health care delivery approaches.