The emergence of innovations in education is always caused by the needs of practice. The reorientation of the purposes of higher medical education has led to a change in strategy of educational activities. The learning strategy of a higher vocational school is now replaced by the strategy of development. Requirements to professional competence and personal qualities of a doctor and a pharmacist are constantly rising, so in order to meet them, the innovative developmental teaching takes into account a number of significant aspects of management and methodology.

The program of professional competence development for the VolgSMU teaching staff members was modernized due to the university's participation in the TEMPUS IV project "The system of lifelong learning for teaching staff members of higher medical educational establishments." The strategy of continuing education is implemented at the Volgograd State Medical University through various activities in which the School of Pedagogical Excellence [3,4] plays a key role.

The program of extended education of the VolgSMU teaching staff members has undergone some significant changes. Practical classes were introduced where the course attendees mastered the technologies of competence-based approach, innovative technologies of teaching - PBL, CBL, TBL, game-playing, brainstorm, debate, proceduralised discussion, case studies, case studies, and also acquired skills of psycho-pedagogical assessment and educational tutorial. [2].

The feedback with the course attendees was implemented on several levels:

- Lectures and practical classes were interactive, which contributed to the development of situational readiness of the teaching staff members;

- The "School of Pedagogical Excellence" provides teaching guidelines at the official website of the VolgSMU;

- An Internet mailbox is provided for remote communication of the course attendees and instructors;

- The final qualifying papers were discussed at the final conference and the most successful of them were published in the course manual [1];

- A survey was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of training. It showed that the majority of the VolgSMU teaching staff members consider the necessity of methodological modification of clinical courses and the humanities teaching, with 97% of them ready to apply their knowledge in practical work right now, and 3% - in the future. The degree of novelty and relevance of the course content was estimated rather high: 43% of those surveyed gave 10 points (on a 10 point scale), and 19% - 8 and 9 points. 64% of the course attendees evaluated the efficiency of interactive teaching methods as "high" and 36% - as "average". Topics that need more detailed and in-depth consideration in further were listed.

Teaching staff members have the opportunity to seek advice and assistance from the Center of innovative educational technologies of the Department of Social Work with the Course of Pedagogy and Educational Technologies.

2. Artyukhina A.I., Chumakov V.I. Pedagogical reflection as one of the leading factors of teaching physicians training // IVth All-Russian conference with international participation "Medical Education - 2013" / Abstracts of the conference (April 4-5, 2013, Moscow). - Moscow: Publishing House of I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, 2013.

3. A. Artyukhina & V.Chumakov. Continuing education of faculty members as the basis for implementation of the competence approach to teaching in higher medical education establishments / Scientific enquiry in the contemporary world: theoretical basics and innovative approach, 2012. - L&L Publishing Titusville Florida USA.

4. Artyukhina A.I., Chumakov V.I., Tretyak S.V. Refresher training for the teaching staff of the medical university in terms of the competence-based approach. International journal of experimental education, 2013. - № 2. - P. 22-23.