The POMOR Program of Primary Health Care Education is developed on the basis of The Russian Health Reform, stating that the new Russian health system should gradually be turned from the hospital outpatient clinics into a system based on primary health care outside the old institutions, closer to the people. A brief introduction to the health and social system in northwest Russia may be read here. A systematic educational program has been initiated, based on a close cooperation between the Regional Health Ministries of Murmansk and Arkhangelsk, the University of Tromsø (UiT), The Northern universities of Sweden, The Northern State Medical University of Arkhangelsk and the Norwegian Medical Association. The Pomor Project have so far (2012) been financed by the Norwegian Ministry of Health and Care Services under the Northern Dimension Partnership in Public Healt and Social Well-being