96.05 Co-Operation in Public Health Research and Teaching in SEE Countries

Wednesday, April 29, 2009
James Flemming (The Hilton Istanbul Hotel )
Jadranka Bozikov Medical School of the University of Zagreb, Croatia
Lijana Zaletel-Kragelj Medical School of the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
Actually the co-operation in public health in South Eastern Europe was most profound and developed among those countries, now independent states that were brought together into the Kingdom of Yugoslavia after the WW I and continued to belong to the same federal state after the WW II till its dissolution in a painful circumstances in 1990-ties. Public health education and practice in those countries is based on common roots due to harmonized development during 70 years and a great merit for this goes to Andrija Stampar who was in charge of Public Health and who initiated and steered enormous development that started in 1919. Only during five years 1920-1925 some 250 public health units were established throughout the country, among them Institutes of hygiene in regional capitals and the School of Public Health in Zagreb which has one of the longest and prolific tradition in health promotion and public health education in South Eastern Europe (the School proudly took Stampar’s name after his death in 1958). The School started a large number of postgraduate (MSc) programs in public health that attracted students (mainly MDs) from all other federal republics. After a ten year break during 1990-ties the co-operation was re-established through networking like Forum for Public Health in SEE that started in the year 2000 as PH-SEE - Programs for Training and Research in Public Health in South Eastern Europe, project initially financed by Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe and later by DAAD that brings together schools and institutes of public health from SEE countries (Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, and Slovenia) involved in academic public health programs. In presentation we will identify opportunities and threats for successful co-operation and cross-fertilization in research and education in public health in the future.

Learning Objectives: Recognize the common roots (history) of health care organization and public health education and practice in SEE countries, particularly in those that for 70 years use to belong to the same federal state named Yugoslavia and re-established co-operation during last 10 years after a 10-year break. List positive examples of co-operation in educaiton and training in public health in the past and analyze and discuss their potential strenghts and weakneses for the future. Identify opportunities and threats for successful co-operation and cross-fertilization in research and education in public health in the near future