Objective  To evaluate the effect of the 'Overseas Team Training Program' in fourth round of the Three-Year Initiative Plan for Strengthening Public Health System Construction in Shanghai municipality and to provide references for assessment on the efficiency of senior public health personnel training in China.

  Methods  We performed questionnaire interviews and external expert reviews during August – December 2018 to qualitatively and quantitatively evaluate the efficiency of all the initiative-sponsored nine overseas team training programs in researches and practices of public health.

  Results  During the period from June 2016 to June 2018, the personnel engaged in the ‘Overseas Team Training Program’ undertook more research projects, obtained much more research funding, and published more study literatures. Compared to those between January 2014 and December 2015, the number of research projects involving international cooperation, belong to national- and provincial-level items increased 2 times (6 vs. 2), 3 times (32 vs. 8), and 40% (14 vs. 11); the funding to the research projects increased 1.5 times (325.8 vs. 128.9 millions yuan RMB), 15.6 times (4 676.5 vs. 282.0 millions), and 15.4 times (1969.0 vs. 12.0 millions); the total number of published papers indexed by Science Citation Index (SCI) /Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) increased 1.33 times (154 vs. 66); the sum of the SCI/SSCI impact factor for the published papers increased from 276.471 to 650.587 and the average value of SCI/SSCI impact factor for each published paper increased from 4.189 to 4.225. The external experts assessed the all 9 programs with the average score of 89.8 ± 4.8, indicating an excellent performance, for each program; the external experts assessed project management with the highest scoring rate (93.8%) for domains of the program implementation and the project completion, benefit analysis, and funding utilization, with the scoring rate of 92.1. %, 88.7%, and 81.5%, respectively.

  Conclusion  The implementation of 'Overseas Team Training Program' in Shanghai municipality has improved the ability of public health professionals to participate in international researches.