MECOR Program

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ATS MECOR 2.0 Program

ATS MECOR

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Loyal to its tagline, the American Thoracic Society helps the world breathe. For more than 28 years, the ATS has been working to build research capacity in low- and middle-income countries through its Methods in Epidemiologic, Clinical, and Operations Research (MECOR) Program. The MECOR Program is a multi-level research methods training course intended for clinicians, investigators, academicians, and public health professionals who primarily work with pulmonary diseases. The objective of the MECOR Program is to prepare current or aspiring investigators, academicians, clinicians and public health practitioners to design and conduct research that is relevant to the needs of the settings in which they work. The overall goal of the MECOR Program is to aid the improvement of global lung health through the development of local, country, and regional lung disease research capacity in low- and middle-income countries.

Since its initiation in 1994, the scope of the ATS MECOR program has grown tremendously. Today, its footprint is truly global with more than 1800 graduates from its global network of courses.  Courses and partners include the Pan African Thoracic Society in Africa, the Chinese Thoracic Society in China, the US Centers for Disease Control and the Indian Council for Medical Research in India, the Indonesian Society for Respirology in Indonesia, the Turkish Thoracic Society in the Mediterranean, the Latin American Thoracic Society in Latin America, and the Vietnamese National TB Program and the University of Sydney in Southeast Asia.


 Program Structure

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During the Spring of 2018, the ATS launched MECOR 2.0, which includes a ground-up redesign of the curriculum, course organization, and faculty/mentorship opportunities. The updated program capitalizes and builds upon the program's extensive experience and expertise with the renewed goal that each participant completes the program with a research manuscript ready for publication. The curriculum utilizes a "flipped classroom" active learning teaching model with seminar style classroom sessions and a focus on one-to-one instruction with a learning management system available for students, faculty, and alumni.  

The ATS MECOR 2.0 Curriculum is designed to provide training through a series of intensive one-week-long classroom-based programs that combine online remote learning activities, lectures, group discussion, and individual protocol development time with a mentor over a 2-year period.


Program Information

Contact List for ATS MECOR Country Directors and Co-Directors

Facebook Group for MECOR Current Students, Faculty, and Alumni


ATS MECOR Staff

Cristina Braz
ATS Senior Director, Global Health

 

 

"Improving global lung health through development of local, country and regional lung disease research capacity"