Two Decades of Partnership Among the Baltic Countries In Public Health Training and Research

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have rich history of collaboration for public health development. Project BRIMHEALTH (Baltic Rim Partnership for Public Health) was launched in 1993, when European public health community and particularly the Nordic Countries, expressed concern on the new health challenges in the Baltic countries and offered the assistance. The project was aiming at capacity development in public health and support of the Schools of Public Health. It was very successful: many professionals gained knowledge and skills in public health; graduates from the program continued their activities at international, national or local levels. Tradition of Baltic research conferences started with support of BRIMHEALTH network and the Nordic School of Public Health. The First Conference on Baltic Public Health Research was carried out in Estonia (1998), while the Second Conference on Public Health Research took place in Lithuania in 2000. The third Baltic Public Health Conference was conducted in Estonia, 2010.  In the middle of the first decade of the recent century, the common Baltic research conferences were followed by smaller workshops and research projects, such as Baltic Sea Public Health Training Network, 2004 – 2007. This project was based on the network of Public Health Schools in the Baltic States, Poland, Germany, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, and was aiming at improvement of the capacities to prevent and control health threats, particularly communicable diseases. Baltic countries continued their collaboration in several research projects for almost 20 years, such as FinBalt Health Monitor, which was initiated by Finland and Baltic countries in 1992; and WHO coordinated project Health Behaviour Study in School Aged Children, since 1994. Baltic collaboration is aiming at coordinated strategies in public health training and research, as well as development of evidence-based health policies and public health practice, since common health challenges require further networking and partnership.