Members and Associate
Members

The work of the Austrian Health Promotion Fund (FGÖ), business unit of Austrian National Public Health Institute, is based on the Health Promotion Act passed in 1998 (Gesundheitsförderungsgesetz, GfG). In accordance with its mission, the FGÖ develops and promotes health promotion and primary prevention in Austria. The general objectives set are:

• Maintaining, promoting and improving the health of the population in a holistic sense and at all stages of life.
• Education and information on preventable diseases and physical, mental and social factors affecting health.

Derived from the Health Promotion Act, the FGÖ defines its role in the health promotion landscape as a funding agency, competence centre and turntable. The concrete definition of these interlinked roles, resulting tasks and intended benefits are:

• Funding Agency: The FGÖ is the national funding agency for health promotion projects in Austria.
• Competence centre: In cooperation with stakeholders and actors in health promotion, the FGÖ develops and disseminates knowledge, develops skills and quality in the field of health promotion.
• Turntable: The FGÖ promotes the exchange of practice, science and politics in the field of health promotion.

The Flanders Institute for Healthy Living aims to promote healthy living and a healthy environment, thereby helping to create a better quality of life for everyone in Flanders.

Gezond Leven uses the following strategies to optimise health promotion and disease prevention in Flanders:

• Supporting professionals and their organisations by providing methodologies, strategies, advice and training
• Raising awareness among target groups
• Supporting local implementation of Flemish preventive health policy
• Making efforts towards healthier policies at every level and in every sector
• Encouraging cooperation between professionals and all those working in health promotion and disease prevention or who have an influence on human health

The Flanders Institute for Healthy Living is an expertise centre for health promotion and disease prevention. It provides strategies, advice, methodologies, support of implementation and training for health workers and professionals. These are aimed at all those involved in health promotion and disease prevention. It is for both front-line workers and policymakers.

Our experts develop ready-to-use packs with a strong scientific foundation. These support the work done by health professionals. The Flanders Institute for Healthy Living fulfills a link function between the theory and practice of health promotion.

The Flanders Institute for Healthy Living works closely with the LOGOs (Lokaal GezondheidsOverleg, local deliberation on health), thereby supporting local activities around the six Flemish health targets.

AVIQ is responsible for major policies: Wellbeing and Health, Handicaps and Family.

Wellbeing and Health

• Reimbursement of health-related social security benefits in nursing homes
• The organisation of the first line of care and home care
• Disease prevention and health promotion
• funding of hospitality and accommodation facilities as well as hospitals

Handicaps

• disability awareness and information
• Home planning assistance
• Financing employment opportunity policies

Family

• The definition of family allowance subsidies
• management of the budget and relevant budget lines.

The National Center of Public Health and Analyses (NCPHA) is a structure within the national healthcare system and carries out activities for protecting public health, promoting health and preventing diseases, providing information for healthcare management.

In conformity with its main activities for the purpose of protecting and promoting health the NCPHA examines the population’s health status and the relationship with environmental factors and living conditions; conducts epidemiological surveys and evaluates risk factors for chronic non-communicable diseases; participates in the development, coordination and performance of national programmes and action plans as well as in international research programmes oriented to strengthening public health (including mental, reproductive and sexual); carries out intervention activities, training workshops and publishes information and methodical materials; assesses exposure and health risk for the population from the impact of biological, chemical and physical hazards on the ambient and working environment as appropriate recommendations have been prepared;  conducts monitoring on nutrition and nutritional status of the population and develops Manuals for nutrition of target population groups.

The NCPHA leads, controls, monitors and coordinates information activities in the healthcare, develops and unifies the medical and statistical documentation for the population health status and for the resources and activities of hospitals; develops mathematic models and prognoses for the demographic and health status of the population; provides current and annual medico-statistical and economic information; accomplish activities on the development of unified health information system and electron healthcare; elaborates and implements a system for classification of patients and reporting and payment technologies; maintains classifications, nomenclatures, standards and methodologies; participates in the realization of statistical activities of the nation as having collaborated with the National Statistical Institute; maintains, updates and publishes health information standards; organizes, coordinates and controls activities for developing electron healthcare; elaborates methods and models for planning and management of resources for hospitals; develops, implements and maintains national standards of coding in hospitals and monitors the process of coding.

The mission of the NCPHA is to integrate these diverse activities into achieving good health benefits for the population. All the efforts of employees in the NCPHA – specialists with academic ranks and degrees, experts and technical personnel – are oriented to applying modern technologies in the field of public health and occupying a leading place in the national healthcare.

• Engages with EU Institutions and European partners to develop a strategic approach to EU policy development on behalf of our stakeholders.
• Delivers a programme of European learning opportunities for staff, developing understanding and building collaborative relationships with European partners.
• Works with EU partners to identify and assess relevant EU legislation and inform our stakeholders if its impacts for their organisations.
• To ensure the good management of the Centre, in accordance with all relevant European and national legislation and policies.

Services:

• Opportunities for learning and sharing good practice across Europe (for example through workshops, conferences, study tours and exchanges);
• Practical examples of different ways of working from across the European Union;
• Development of EU partnerships to promote Kent and Medway health and social care to key decision makers and institutions;
• Advice and help for stakeholders to develop, implement and manage EU projects;
• Intelligence gathering and dissemination through regular bulletins and briefing papers on health and social care topics;
• Advice to stakeholder organisations on relevant EU policy developments;
• Facilitation of workforce development opportunities (such as deployment of staff to other EU countries and access to EU learning programmes).

The National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) is a research and development institute under the Finnish Ministry of Social Affairs and Health. THL seeks to serve the broader society in addition to the scientific community, actors in the field and decision-makers in central government and municipalities. The aim is to promote health and welfare in Finland.

The Association of Voluntary Health, Social and Welfare Organisations (YTY), the Finnish Federation for Social Welfare and Health (STKL), and the Finnish Centre for Health Promotion (Tekry) transferred their separate actions to SOSTE on 1 January 2012. SOSTE is a national not-for-profit social and health NGO that has over 200 member organisations.

The purpose of SOSTE – Finnish Society for Social and Health at regional, national and European level is to:

• Function as an expert and advocate for social and health politics
• Function as a not-for-profit organisation building the conditions for social well-being and health, people’s participation and a just and responsible society individually and in cooperation with its member organisations and other parties
• Enhance the ability of registered social and health non-governmental organisations to operate in the best interests of the people
• Promote social well-being and health
• Build social justice and equity
• Strengthen people’s fundamental rights and possibilities for participation and involvement.

Santé publique France was created on 27 April 2016 as the French National Public Health Agency, resulting from the merging of the French Institute for Public Health Surveillance (InVS), the French Institute for Health Promotion and Health Education (Inpes) and the Establishment for Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Response (Eprus).

Santé publique France will serve the population in all aspects of public health based on scientific knowledge, data, and information.
It will support the government and society in improving the health and well-being of the population. It will apply a population-based approach with the objective of reducing social health inequalities in all areas of public health: Infectious diseases; Non infectious diseases; Environmental health; Occupational health.

The agency is present throughout the national territory with regional units, including oversea territories, and works hand to hand with the Regional Health Agencies (ARS).

Santé publique France will:

• Analyze up-to-date knowledge and data on the determinants of health and risk factors.
• Provide decision makers at all levels with independent evidence-based guidance and recommendations. It will be supported by expert committees.
• Propose measures to health authorities to protect the population from health threats.
• Develop evidence-based interventions for prevention and health promotion.
• Contribute to preparedness and management of health crisis, and provide support for the implementation of response plans.

Operating as a network, cooperation with partners and health professionals enables to combine strengths.
Openness and dialogue with stakeholders and the civil society is one of the founding principles of Santé publique France.

The agency will have 4 committees:

• A Management Board
• A Scientific Council
• A Public Health Ethics and Professional Conduct Committee
• An Openness and Dialogue Committee.

Inform, motivate, support – for healthy behaviour and healthy living environments.

The Federal Centre for Health Education (BZgA) is a higher federal authority and departmental research institute within the portfolio of the Federal Ministry for Health (BMG), based in Cologne, Germany.

BZgA is responsible for health promotion and disease prevention in Germany. It communicates reliable knowledge on health issues and promotes healthy lifestyles and health literacy among the general public. To this end, it devises strategies and turns them into evidence-based campaigns, programmes and other activities.

For more information, see www.bzga.de

The Institute of Preventive Medicine, Environmental and Occupational Health, Prolepsis, is a non-profit organization actively involved since 1991 in the fields of public health, health promotion, environmental and occupational health, as well as medical research and epidemiology.

Among Prolepsis’ main objectives is to organize and implement research and educational projects. The Institute also aims at the dissemination and promotion of knowledge on preventive medicine, health promotion and research methodology. It participates both as a coordinator and a partner in several European public health projects and implements applied health promotion initiatives in cooperation with national and European institutions. In addition, it organizes scientific meetings, seminars and conferences for specific occupational groups, e.g. health professionals, as well as the general public, either independently or in collaboration with universities and scientific bodies in Greece and abroad, such as the Harvard School of Public Health.

The National Public Health Center (NPHC) functions as a central budgetary authority being a central agency under the direction of the Minister responsible for public health. NPHC has national competence within its scope of activities.

In order to fulfil the public health goals set out in the legislation, NPHC performs managing, coordinating and supervising activities related to public health (especially environmental and settlement health, food and nutritional health, child and young health, radiohygiene and chemical safety), epidemiology, health development (health protection, health education, health promotion), and public health administration, as well as supervision of healthcare provision. Furthermore, on the basis of delegated competence NPHC carries out tasks and duties relating to occupational health (workplace hygiene, occupational medicine), exercises and executes private law rights and duties in the field of occupational health.

NPHC is managed by the Chief Medical Officer (CMO). The CMO is involved in exercising powers granted to the Minister as professional manager over the government offices of the capital city and of the counties (hereinafter: government office) and the subregional (or district) offices acting in their public health function (hereinafter: subregional office).

The Institue of Public Health works to promote health and wellbeing, improve health equity, and reduce health inequalities throughout the life course.

The Institute has researchers and policy specialists from a range of disciplines based in offices in Dublin and Belfast.

The Institute works with national and local government departments, and have established partnerships with public health schools, clinical and academic institutions, and community organisations on the island of Ireland, in the UK, EU and globally.

As a North South body, partnership working on the island of Ireland is a priority for the Institute.

The Istituto Superiore di Sanità (National Institute of Health), also ISS, is an Italian public institution that, as the leading technical-scientific body of the Italian National Health Service, performs research, trials, control, counseling, documentation and training for public health. The Institute is under the supervision of the Ministero della Salute (Ministry of Health).

Departments

• Environment and Primary Prevention
• Cell Biology and Neurosciences
• Haematology, Oncology and Molecular Medicine
• Therapeutic Research and Medicines Evaluation
• Infectious, Parasitic and Immune-Mediated Diseases
• Veterinary Public Health and Food Safety
• Technology and Health

National centres

• National AIDS Centre
• National Centre for Chemical Substances
• National Centre for Epidemiology, Surveillance and Health Promotion
• Centre for Immunobiologicals Research and Evaluation
• National Centre for Rare Diseases
• Evaluation and Accreditation Body
• National Blood Centre
• National Transplant Centre

Technical Services

• Service for Biotechnology and Animal Welfare
• Data Management, Documentation, Library and Publishing Activities

The Federation, at a national level, has the representation of the nursing profession in the interest of members and citizens who benefit from the skills that membership of an Order in itself certifies and safeguards. It also guarantees the public interests, granted by the law, related to professional practice. The National Federation coordinates and promotes the activities of the respective Provincial Orders and its supervisory body is the Ministry of Health.

Veneto Region is an Italian regional authority. It aims to guarantee the fulfillment of the personal expectations of its citizens as well as their participation to the political, economic and social resources of the region. The objectives of its Health and Social Affairs Department are to better implement an essential level of care provision and to increase health prevention and promotion.

The Veneto Region is situated in the North-Eastern part of Italy and it is divided into seven provinces with about 4,7 million inhabitants living in 580 municipalities (2006). About 71% of the population live in towns with fewer than 30.000 inhabitants and the average population density is 244,2 per km². The percentage of foreign citizens resident in the Region is about 6,8% (2007).  The Veneto has a positive growth rate (0,5%) and a growing population above the age of 65 (17,5%). The GDP (2005) per capita is 27.691 € higher than the Italian average (23.474 €). The expenditure in R&D is 0,59% of the GDP.

The Regional Government is based in Venice.

Tuscany is a region in central Italy with an area of about 23,000 square kilometers and a population of about 3.8 million inhabitants.  Regione Toscana (Tuscany Region) is the regional authority and administrative body of the region; it has legislative, administrative, and financial autonomy and is responsible, on a regional level, for issues including education, social issues, healthcare, international cooperation, and the environment.

The Tuscan health system includes three Local Health Authorities and four university hospitals:

•     Central Tuscany: Local Health Authorities (Florence, Prato, Pistoia, Empoli)

•     Northwest Tuscany: Local Health Authorities (Lucca, Massa e Carrara, Versilia, Pisa and Livorno)

•     Southeast Tuscany: Local Health Authorities (Siena, Arezzo and Grosseto)

•     University hospital Careggi (Florence)

•     University hospital Meyer (Florence)

•     University hospital of Pisa

•     University hospital of Siena

The health system is the sector to which the region commits the largest share of its budget and organizational structure, and constitutes an infrastructure of services and activities that can generate positive effects throughout the region. It is, in spite of and even more so in a period of economic crisis, a driving force of development for the entire regional economy, in which economic development is seen not as an end in itself but also includes, in a context of sustainability, measures tied to the social sector and the environment. Regione Toscana is also actively involved in the promotion of the Tuscan Life Sciences Cluster for large and small companies operating in the sector.

Regione Toscana has a long-standing tradition of activities to promote wellness, including healthy diets and physical activity. The latest version of Regione Toscana’s multi-year health plan includes a major focus on “health in all policies”, i.e. the promotion of healthy lifestyles across all sectors (urban planning, environment, welfare, transportation, commerce, schools, culture, sport, etc.). The project team will include colleagues in other relevant sectors of the regional government as well as the region’s associated health agencies for specific expertise on obesity; expertise in the management of European projects will also be present.

Federsanita is a nationalwide association including municipalities and public health authorities. As a result of the economic crisis and new poverty (immigrants, news poors) a major social and health priority is the access to care and the fight against inequalities. Federsanita is seeking new strategies to address more effectively these new social challenges.

DoRS – Health Promotion Documentation Center of Piedmont Region

Who we are

We are a documentation center established by the Region of Piedmont in 1998. Working at the center is a group of professionals in documentation, communication, planning, training, and evaluation.

Vision

We help to disseminate the culture and practice of health prevention and promotion and we support actions for their sustainable development.

Mission

We provide access to robust and up-to-date documentation of the efficacy of public health projects and interventions through the Health in All Policies approach. We facilitate processes of knowledge transfer and exchange (KTE). We provide data, scientific evidence, regulations, models and tools, good practices and training courses for planning, managing, and evaluating health prevention and promotion interventions with an equity focus.

Mandate

We provide Piedmont regional government and Local Health Units with the necessary scientific, methodological support for health promotion and prevention actions and strategies. In addition, we help decision makers and health practitioners to improve their skills through:

• Participation in work groups and local, regional, and international networks and projects
• Translation, summarizing, and adaptation of documentation
• Dissemination of social marketing and health communication strategies
• Database creation and management
• Evaluation of projects and good practices
• Training and continuing professional education in health prevention and promotion
• Management of a specialist periodicals library

Principles/Values

Our guiding principles are:

• The principles of scientific transparency and independence, as we belong to no organization with vested interests that could bias our activities.
• The recommendations outlined in the Ottawa Charter (1986) and the Shanghai Declaration promoting health in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the WHO/Europe Health 2020 strategy.
• Core competencies and professional standards for health promotion practitioners required by the accreditation system CompHP. Developing competencies and professional standards for health promotion capacity building in Europe (International Union for Health Promotion and Education – IUHPE, 2012)

Target audience

Our target audience is composed of people interested in individual and community health and well-being, particularly the practitioners and professionals in the health care, education, social and culture sectors and the administrators and decision makers at local, regional, and national levels in:

• Regional governments and local authorities
• Local health units and hospitals
• Ministry of Health and Istituto Superiore di Sanità
• Regional and local school offices and schools of all levels
• Universities and research institutes
• Third sector agencies

The Strategic Regional Agency for Health and Social Affair of Puglia (AReSS Puglia) is the technical support of the Regional Government’s Healthcare and Social affair and sports for all Department. In the last 6 years has been promoting Health Innovation processes, Research and Internationalization of Healthcare Systems and Social services.

To this extend Ares established as part of the internal organizational model two Units dedicated namely to:

• Health technology Assessment
• Internationalization of Healthcare Services and Relations with EU.

In the overall reorganization of the Puglia Regional Governance System, called MAIA, the organizational model relies on two main pillars:

• One represents the “Strategic Agency” with exploration functions
• The other represents the “Department” with exploitation functions.

The Regional healthcare Strategic Agency therefore has the responsibility to promote research and innovate processes, as well as assessing the outcomes and results of projects in order to hand them on to the Health Social Care and Sport Department for full scale deployment of successful experimentation.

Furthermore in Puglia, the Regional Governor is also Health Minister. This choice was made to guarantee direct control of the Healthcare and Digital Agenda in the full acknowledgment of the pivotal role played by the Healthcare System in the economy of a Region and therefore the need to directly foster and influence inter sector innovative policies that could speed up the overall regional economic growth.

The main goal in public health of the Riga city municipality is clearly defined in 2012 by Riga city council when it approved its public health strategy for the period 2012-2021. The aim is to improve the health of the population of Riga and to reduce premature deaths. To achieve this goal, the public health strategy defines the following objectives:

• To reduce the incidence of non-communicable diseases, including addiction prevention;
• To improve people’s knowledge about healthy lifestyles ;
• To promote a healthy and safe city , learning and working environment;
• To improve health care services for the city of Riga.

To ensure that the objectives defined in the strategy are introduced, Riga’s city council approved the Action Plan for the implementation of the strategy in 2012 -2016 , the Action Plan aims to promote interdisciplinary collaboration on public health  and to  introduce the “health in all policies ” concept in the municipality of Riga. The aim of the local government is to create conditions in which the healthy choices for the population are easily accessible and convenient.

The Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (CDPC) of Latvia was established on 1st April 2012 by Cabinet of Ministers of Latvia. Centre is supervised by Ministry of Health (www.vm.gov.lv). It is seated in the capital city – Riga, Latvia.

CDPC of Latvia goals are to strengthen Latvia’s public health system, prevent diseases, including infectious and rare diseases.

CDPC of Latvia goals are to implement national public health policy in the field of epidemiological safety and disease prevention, to ensure the implementation and coordination of health promotion policies.

Functions of The Center for Disease Prevention and Control:

• to perform epidemiological surveillance and monitoring of infectious diseases, registration, investigation thereof, collection of statistical data on infectious diseases, to organize measures for prevention of infectious diseases and limiting the spread thereof;
• to participate in the management of emergencies and prevention of epidemic (pandemic) threats;
• to plan, coordinate and monitor implementation of the immunization program, to plan vaccination of the population, to compile vaccine orders by bodies responsible for vaccination and prepare vaccine orders for medicinal product wholesalers, to provide vaccination monitoring and preparation of statistical data, to perform epidemiological investigation of cases of vaccination related complications;
• to establish and develop a national information and monitoring systems for HIV, HBV, HCV and other infections and coordinate the operation of the referred-to system;
• to organize storage, inventory and distribution of immunobiological preparations to medical treatment institutions;
• to cooperate with State and local government authorities, non-governmental organizations, individuals and international authorities in the field of epidemiological safety by providing exchange of information and experience, training and implementation of joint projects;
• to ensure cooperation with the World Health Organization, the European Commission, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and public health authorities of other countries in the epidemiological surveillance issues of infectious diseases and other epidemiological safety issues, to provide maintenance of the functioning of the Early Warning and Response System and its coordination in the State;
• to develop methodological recommendations and provide methodological support to medical treatment institutions, local governments and other authorities in the field of epidemiological safety;
• to acquire, compile, process and analyse statistical information on public health and health care;
• to perform the public health monitoring;
• to ensure the function of the State specialised centre for the membership in the European information network on drugs and drug addiction (Reitox) maintained by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction;
• to exchange information about risk-assessment and control of new psychoactive substances, to ensure the information exchange between the State specialized centre and the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction on the production, illicit trafficking and use of new psychoactive substances and preparations containing new psychoactive substances;
• monitor non-infectious diseases, as well as to evaluate the environmental factors which may affect the health of the population.

LISER is a Luxembourgish public research institute under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Higher Education and Research. Its research focus lies in the field of social and economic policy including the spatial dimension. This comprises topics like poverty, inequality, education, social inclusion, employment, unemployment, health, housing, mobility, and regional convergence. The aim is to improve the understanding of causal relationships and to provide sound evidence for the impact of institutional settings and policy options on outcomes. Based on empirical evidence, the Institute wants to provide well-grounded and clear-cut answers to policy relevant questions. The results are published in form of research reports, monographs and scientific articles.

The research activities of the Institute are carried out by three research departments labelled “Labor Market”, “Living Conditions”, and “Urban Development and Mobility”. In addition, the survey and data center team is in charge of data collection through face-to-face and online surveys, research in survey methodology and survey statistics, as well as creation and management of databases in social sciences.

The Institute employs 138 people, of whom 72 are researchers and PhD candidates. The research team is representing a high degree of interdisciplinarity and includes demographers, economists, geographers, legal experts, political scientists, psychologists, social scientists, and statisticians.

RIVM works to prevent and control outbreaks of infectious diseases. It promotes public health and consumer safety, and helps to protect the quality of the environment. RIVM collects and collates knowledge and information from various sources, both national and international. It applies this knowledge itself, and places it at the disposal of policy-makers, researchers, regulatory authorities and the general public. Each year, RIVM produces numerous reports on all aspects of public health, nutrition and diet, health care, disaster management, nature and the environment.

Pharos is the national centre of expertise on health disparities/equity. Its expertise focuses on

• Sustainable improvement of the quality, effectiveness and accessibility of care and prevention for people with limited health literacy, migrants and refugees.
• Reducing health disparities that exist between different groups of people.
• Exhange of knowledge and expertise with other health organisations in Europe is essential in the approach of health disparities/equity and prevention.

The Norwegian Directorate of Health aims to better the quality in the health service and to promote factors that bring good health to the population.

The Directorate of Health aims to improve the health of the citizens and the community as a whole through targeted activities across services, sectors and administrative levels. The Directorate does so by virtue of its role as a executive agency, as a regulatory authority and as an implementing authority in areas of health policy. The directorate is an executive agency and professional authority under the Ministry of Health and Care Services.

The National Institute of Public Health – National Institute of Hygiene (NIPH-NIH) is the main governmental public health research institute and the reference centre for the national network of sanitary epidemiological service. It cooperates with public health centres at provincial level and other medical research institutes and institutions in Poland and abroad.

NIPH-NIH, which is the oldest public health institution in Poland, was created just a few days after the proclamation of the independence of Poland, on 21 November 1918. Together with changes in health and political situation and the development of medical science, the Institute’s functions were also evolving. It has always, however, been performing activities, of a practical and intervention as well as scientific and training nature, in several domains of public health.

The National Institute of Health Doutor Ricardo Jorge (Ricardo Jorge Institute) is a public body integrated in the indirect administration of the State, under the tutelage of the Ministry of Health, endowed with scientific, technical, administrative, financial autonomy and its own patrion.

The Ricardo Jorge Institute is organized, in technical-scientific terms, in six major departments:

• Department of Food and Nutrition;
• Department of Infectious Diseases;
• Department of Epidemiology;
• Department of Human Genetics;
• Department of Health Promotion and Prevention of  Non-communicable diseases;
• Department of Environmental Health.

Public Health Scotland is the national agency for improving Scotland’s health. We are a ‘special health board’ part of the structure of the National Health Service in Scotland and our strategic objectives are to:

• enhance understanding of Scotland’s health and how to improve it
• contribute our expertise to policy-makers
• lead the delivery of health improvement programmes
• disseminate evidence, learning and good practice
• establish practical arrangements for working with NHS Boards and other key partners

Our staff are drawn from a broad range of professional backgrounds. These include: health promotion, public health, medicine, nursing, the behavioural sciences, research specialists, training managers, topic specialists, health information specialists, librarians, information managers, publishing specialists, graphic designers, advertising and PR professionals, project managers, administrators, HR managers and finance managers.

The organisation has four directorates:

It is made up of four directorates:

• Data and Digital Innovation
• Place and Wellbeing
• Clinical and Protecting Health
• Strategy, Governance and Performance

NHS Health Scotland also includes the Scottish Centre for Healthy Working Lives. Together we provide professional leadership and support for specific aspects of the health improvement effort in Scotland.

The Ministry is the central government body for

• healthcare

• health

• public health insurance,

• further training of healthcare professionals,

• natural healing baths, natural healing resources, natural mineral waters,

• pricing policy on prices of products, services and services in health care and on prices for renting non-residential premises in healthcare facilities,

• control of the prohibition of biological weapons.

The National Institute of Public Health of the Republic of Slovenia is a government agency accountable and responsible for public health promotion at the national level.

The National Institute of Public Health of the Republic of Slovenia is interested in the following work areas:  Alcohol, Child Health, Communicable Diseases, Drugs and substance Abuse, Environmental Health, Food Policy, gender, Health Impact Assessment, Health Systems, HIV/AIDS and Sexual Health, Mental Health, Nutrition, Physical Activity and Tobacco.

In the context of the project ‘Capacity Building for health promotion in Central and Eastern Europe’, the institute elaborated a brief profile of the situation with respect to health promotion in Slovenia: Health promotion in Slovenia as well a Capacity Plan for health promotion.

The Regional Ministry of Health of Andalusia (CSJA) is responsible for public health, health policy, planning and regulation, healthcare management and provision in Andalusia, as well as the leadership of the Andalusian Public Healthcare System (APHS).

The Directorate of Public Health and Addictions performs the following functions:

• The preparation of the proposals for health objectives of the Basque Health Plan
• The development, implementation and evaluation of health protection policies related to food health, both in aspects of food security and healthy eating, and enviornmental health, including among other areas drinking water and bathing water.
• Surveillance and epidemiological analysis of health and its determinants, as well as the incidence of diseases and their distribution in different population groups.
• The prevention of diseases and the promotion of health through the design and execution of vertical programs or the incorporation of actions in care services aimed at these objectives.

The Public Health Agency of Sweden is a government agency accountable to the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs and has a national responsibility for public health issues.

The agency was established on January 1, 2014 and is a merger of the Swedish National Institute of Public Health and the Swedish Institute for Communicable Diseases. Most of work concerning environmental health at the National Board of Health and Welfare was also transferred to the new agency.

The aim of the agency is to develop a national knowledge support thereby promoting public health practice in society and making it more effective. The main tasks are to identify and highlight public health issues where effective interventions can be made and to secure preconditions for health on equal terms by monitoring the development of public health and analyzing the effect of important determinants. The agency will also monitor the development of public health interventions, promote health and prevent diseases and support communicable disease control.

The main vision of Region Västra Götaland is the good life, which has its base in economic, social and environmental sustainability (Public health policy).

Region Västra Götaland two biggest responsibilities are health and medical care and regional development. The public health work focuses on achieving a good and equal health for the entire population. The main steering documents except Vision Västra Götaland is the Public Health Policy with its six challenges and our action plan for health equity.

Region Västra Götaland is a political organization and within the area of public health the formal responsibility is divided between the Public Health Committee (policy mandate) and the Health and Medical Care Committees (client mandate).

Public Health Wales was established as an NHS Trust on 1 October 2009.

Public Health Wales has four statutory functions:

• To provide and manage a range of public health, health protection, healthcare improvement, health advisory, child protection and microbiological laboratory services and services relating to the surveillance, prevention and control of communicable diseases;
• To develop and maintain arrangements for making information about matters related to the protection and improvement of health in Wales available to the public; to undertake and commission research into such matters and to contribute to the provision and development of training in such matters;
• To undertake the systematic collection, analysis and dissemination of information about the health of the people of Wales in particular including cancer incidence, mortality and survival; and prevalence of congenital anomalies; and
• To provide, manage, monitor, evaluate and conduct research into screening of health conditions and screening of health related matters.

The Andalusian School of Public Health is a collaborating center of the World Health Organization and the Pan American Health Organization.

The School also works for professional societies, hospitals and regional health services throughout Spain as well as for third countries through projects of the European Union and the World Bank. Through its Teaching, Consulting and Research projects, the School integrates public health and management approaches, through which

• It generates new knowledge and disseminates it among members of health organizations.
• It develops a continuous process of updating knowledge in response to variations in social demands and the evolution of health systems.
• Identifies the relevant knowledge existing in organizations and the information flows necessary for its transmission.
• It creates spaces for the exchange and circulation of information and facilitates the transfer between the people who need it and those who generate it.
• Materialize knowledge by creating products, services and systems and implementing them in organizations.

*To be formally approved by the EuroHealthNet General Council at its next annual meeting.

The Antwerp Health Law and Ethics Chair (AHLEC) is a research consortium on health law and bioethics hosted at the University of Antwerp, Belgium.

AHLEC brings together experts in health law and bioethics from all Belgian universities, and collaborates closely with medical professionals from university and regional hospitals, researchers in medical sociology, the Council of the Belgian Medical Association, major health law firms, and Flemish and Belgian public health authorities.

AHLEC offers expertise in many topics at the intersection of health law and bioethics (mainly from the Belgian perspective), especially with the aim to reduce health inequities and improve access to healthcare while safeguarding patient and human rights.

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The University of Brighton has been part of the city of Brighton & Hove since 1859, starting as a school of art in the kitchens of the Royal Pavilion and growing to become the diverse and inclusive institution it is today.

Comunità di Venezia and Casa Aurora are non-profit organizations based in Venice. Casa Aurora is a residential rehabilitation service that takes care of mothers with mental health problems, drug-dependent pregnant women and drug addict mothers with children. We have been working in the field of addiction, mental health disease and gender issues for thirty years. In addition to therapeutic and rehabilitation activities, Comunità di Venezia has carried out a series of researches on addiction problems, mental health problems related to gender identity and issues related to intergenerational transmission of psychopathological problems and styles of emotional attachment.

The Trimbos Institute contributes to the improvement of mental health by sharing knowledge. The Trimbos Institute seeks to enhance the quality of life of the population by engaging in the development and application of knowledge about mental health, addictions, and associated physical illnesses, both in the Netherlands and abroad. At the heart of all the work done by the Trimbos Institute is the desire to improve individual lives, the quality of care and quality of policies that impact care delivery.

The work of the Trimbos Institute encompasses mental health problems and addictions for persons between – 9 months and 90 + years old and also include interventions targeted at environmental influences, informal caregivers, and family members.

The work of the Trimbos Institute is primarily geared towards the general population through monitoring and health promotion efforts. Trimbos also works with and for specific target groups or at-risk groups, the main five areas are common mental health problems, severe and enduring mental ill health, tobacco, alcohol and drugs.

Specific activities of the Trimbos Institute are:

• to detect and monitor mental health problems and addictions through (international) large-scale epidemiological and monitoring efforts in order to keep policymakers, politicians, health professionals and service users informed about the mental health of Dutch and international populations;
• to develop new offline and online treatment methods, quality standards, practice guidelines, health interventions and disease prevention programs;
• to assess and evaluate the cost-effectiveness of mental health and addiction services in the Netherlands and abroad;
• to provide training and professional development resources to a wide range of audiences across sectors at the local, national and international level;
• to promote public health education about mental health problems, substance use, and addiction; and
• to encourage knowledge sharing and exchange by facilitating contacts between organisations and individuals at local, national and global levels.

Radboud University Medical Center specializes in patient care, scientific research, teaching and training in Nijmegen. Its mission is to have a significant impact on health care. They aim to be pioneers in shaping the health care of the future and do this in a person-centered and innovative way.

Radboud university medical center cannot and does not aim to achieve these ambitions on its own. They are convinced of the strength of a sustainable collaborative network with hospitals, health-care centers and knowledge facilities, primary care professionals and other partners.

They are evolving from a university medical center into an academic medical network. Radboud university medical center is taking the lead in this network, which always starts with a joint vision and shared values, and with respect for everyone’s strengths, profile and identity.

In close consultation with this network, the Radboud university medical center will reach joint agreements on how to share and develop knowledge, expertise and facilities, make decisions on who can provide specific types of care, and how they can jointly add value for each patient.

They also share research and teaching responsibilities to the best of their ability. Demonstrably high quality and accessibility of care are the priorities in the networks. In this way, they can achieve their ultimate objective: providing the best and most sustainable care for all patients; close to the patient if possible, further away if necessary.

The National Public Health Institute of the Republic of North Macedonia aims to promote healthy people in a healthy environment. The institute is the leading national public health scientific institution in the country and teaches basis of the Medical Faculty for the subjects of public health: social medicine (including health promotion), environmental health, epidemiology and occupational medicine.  Its mission is the improvement of the population’s health through control and prevention of diseases, injuries and violence, at all. levels and in all environments, with key activities like health statistics, healthy lifestyle and diseases prevention, health promotion, Health Campaigns and cancer screening programs, Public Health Policy Development, Research in Public Health, Teaching and training, Environmental Health risk assessment, Communicable and non communicable diseases surveillance, Health Impact Assessment.

The Faculty of social sciences and technology management has eleven departments with all together around 240 employees in scientific positions.  The research conducted at the Faculty spans across multiple disciplines. This broad academic spectrum allows cross-disciplinary collaboration and creative subject combinations, also including technology, engineering and natural sciences. At the faculty, and the university as a whole, health, welfare and technology is a strategic research area.

The faculty prioritizes research of high international quality, multi-disciplinary research and externally financed research, especially EU-financed research. The research is directed towards innovation and entrepreneurship.

On August 25-27, 2014, the Faculty of social sciences and technology management will co-organise the 2nd International Forum arranged in Health Promotion Research. The objective is to enable researchers, practitioners and policy makers to share, discuss and develop health promotion research and practice specifically related to future health under the label “NEXT HEALTH”. The Forum will be a joint event with the Global Working Group on Salutogenesis.

OsloMet aspires to play a leading role as a provider of research-based knowledge related to the welfare state, in Norway and abroad.

Health For All (H4A) is the core mission statement of this group, which aims with its activities to contribute to making health a vital resource equally available to all individuals regardless of their personal, social and cultural backgrounds.

The general goal of H4A is to do reserach  and develop interventions from a psychosocial approach to health, as defined by the World Health Organisation.

Since its onset, Egas Moniz – Cooperativa de Ensino Superior, C.R.L. has been a community of students, teachers and staff, whose mission is “dedicated to the advance in knowledge, learning and education of its students, at the service of improving health conditions for the global society in the 21st Century”. It has been for a long time now a benchmark institution in teaching health in Portugal.

Egas Moniz has been certified in accordance with the ISO 9001:2008 Standard since 2010 and it is the body that set up the Egas Moniz Higher Institute of Health Science (University) and the Egas Moniz Higher School of Health (Polytechnic) focusing on training health care professionals and likewise setting itself as a centre for social responsibility, heavily implanted in the local community through the provision of medical care.

As an academic institution, our activity is educational and scientific, and we are backed by a teaching body of over 400 highly qualified teachers, who take part in scientific research projects in partnership with national and foreign institutions.

The University of Laguna is a public institution of higher education, operating in autonomous status under the Constitution and public laws for the provision of higher education. Its activity is based on the principle of academic freedom, which is manifested in the freedom of teaching while ensuring the rights of free expression and dissemination of ideas, as well as the artistic creation, humanities, science and technology.

The Foundation for the Promotion of Health and Biomedical Research of Valencia Region, FISABIO, is a nonprofit scientific and healthcare entitiy, whose primary purpose is to encourage, to promote and to develop scientific and technical health and biomedical research in Valencia Region.

FISABIO integrates and manages the Health Research Map of the Centre for Public Health Research, Dr. Peset University Hospital Foundation, Alicante University General Hospital Foundation, Elche University General Hospital Foundation, and the Mediterranean Ophthalmological Foundation. In addition, FISABIO assumes the scientific activity of other 18 Health Departments.

FISABIO provides service to more than 1,500 healthcare professionals within the Valencia network, who are specialists working in research projects and clinical trials managed by the Foundation.

From July 2013, Fisabio also provides Ophthalmological Assistance, a service which, up till now, was being carried out by the Ophthalmology Mediterranean Foundation  (FOM).

Among FISABIO main he objectives:

• To facilitate, promote, develop and execute research according to existing research plans in the Valencia Department of Health.
• To act as scientific and technical research and innovation driving agent, providing the necessary basis to promote interaction between research teams located in Universities, Hospitals, the Scientific Research Council and other similar institutions.
• To facilitate and promote the training of professionals and researchers within the Health field.
  To perform and promote all type of studies that generate knowledge in the field of health care and health in general.
• To Cooperate and develop healthcare activities.

The Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SALAR) joined EuroHealthNet as a partner in both PHASE and CIRI. The Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions, SALAR, is both an employers’ organisation and an organisation that represents and advocates for local government in Sweden. All of Sweden’s municipalities, county councils and regions are members of SALAR. SALAR represents and acts on their initiative. The mission for SALAR is to provide municipalities, county councils and regions with better conditions for local and regional self-government. The vision is to develop the welfare system and its services.

The aim of de Nederlandse ggz and its member organisations is to ensure the availability of high quality, accessible, affordable and sustainable mental health care in the Netherlands and in all Europe.

Mental health promotion and prevention of illness is of the utmost importance for a sustainable (mental) health care. De Nederlandse ggz strives for equality of mental and physical health promotion and prvention in European policies.

FNO is a Charity Fund in the Netherlands which funds projects through four different programmes. One of these programmes, the Healthy Future Nearby, has the objective of reducing health inequalities. This programme will run from 2015 to 2020 and subsidises projects that focus on an integrated approach to reducing health inequalities of less privileged families.

The Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SALAR) joined EuroHealthNet as a partner in both PHASE and CIRI. The Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions, SALAR, is both an employers’ organisation and an organisation that represents and advocates for local government in Sweden. All of Sweden’s municipalities, county councils and regions are members of SALAR. SALAR represents and acts on their initiative. The mission for SALAR is to provide municipalities, county councils and regions with better conditions for local and regional self-government. The vision is to develop the welfare system and its services.

The Danish Committee for Health Education is a national, non-profit organisation, that provides health information services – books, leaflets, posters, apps, workshops, reports, and much more.

The Committee is one of the largest publishers in Denmark – and one of a kind also. It is an explorer and bridgebuilder; willing to also investigate, innovate, and inspire.

Based in Copenhagen, the Committee for Health Education tries to connect people with knowledge and knowledge with people to make sure good research, ideas, and best practices are shared and used.

Special Olympics is a global sports and health organization dedicated to children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). Through programming in sports, health, education and community building, Special Olympics is tackling the inactivity, stigma, isolation, and health disparities that people with IDD face. Our work goes far beyond sport events, we invest in a variety of health, fitness and well-being programs for Special Olympics athletes and all people with IDD including health screenings through our Healthy Athletes program, inclusive health and fitness programs on community level as well education and training for health care professionals, students, families, coaches, care givers and other stakeholders.

Radboud University Medical Center specializes in patient care, scientific research, teaching and training in Nijmegen. Its mission is to have a significant impact on health care. They aim to be pioneers in shaping the health care of the future and do this in a person-centered and innovative way.

Radboud university medical center cannot and does not aim to achieve these ambitions on its own. They are convinced of the strength of a sustainable collaborative network with hospitals, health-care centers and knowledge facilities, primary care professionals and other partners.

They are evolving from a university medical center into an academic medical network. Radboud university medical center is taking the lead in this network, which always starts with a joint vision and shared values, and with respect for everyone’s strengths, profile and identity.

In close consultation with this network, the Radboud university medical center will reach joint agreements on how to share and develop knowledge, expertise and facilities, make decisions on who can provide specific types of care, and how they can jointly add value for each patient.

They also share research and teaching responsibilities to the best of their ability. Demonstrably high quality and accessibility of care are the priorities in the networks. In this way, they can achieve their ultimate objective: providing the best and most sustainable care for all patients; close to the patient if possible, further away if necessary.

Since 1951, the N. S. Bom Sucesso Foundation’s mission has been to promote health and human development. We provide special care to child and maternal health, ensuring a service of excellence regardless of the patients’ socio-economic status.

Our approach includes regular health screenings which enable the early detection and diagnosis of abnormalities, as well as the monitoring and treatment of most cases of identified diseases. It also includes health education activities, in order to provide each patient and family the necessary information for the adoption of healthy behaviors and lifestyles.

To stimulate child development through health promotion is critical for the human development. This is the vision that guides the Foundation to provide a model of healthcare services based on best practices of preventive medicine and nursing, acting prematurely, preventing and managing disease.

Since its onset, Egas Moniz – Cooperativa de Ensino Superior, C.R.L. has been a community of students, teachers and staff, whose mission is “dedicated to the advance in knowledge, learning and education of its students, at the service of improving health conditions for the global society in the 21st Century”. It has been for a long time now a benchmark institution in teaching health in Portugal.

Egas Moniz has been certified in accordance with the ISO 9001:2008 Standard since 2010 and it is the body that set up the Egas Moniz Higher Institute of Health Science (University) and the Egas Moniz Higher School of Health (Polytechnic) focusing on training health care professionals and likewise setting itself as a centre for social responsibility, heavily implanted in the local community through the provision of medical care.

As an academic institution our activity is educational and scientific, and we are backed by a teaching body of over 400 highly qualified teachers, who take part in scientific research projects in partnership with national and foreign institutions.

The Federal Public Service (FPS) Health, Food Chain Safety and Environment was set up in 2001. Its competencies were transferred from :

• the former Ministry of Social Affairs, Health and Environment
• the regionalized Ministry of Agriculture

The following scientific establishments are linked to the FPS and carry out research into policy-supporting matters or issue advisory reports :

• Sciensano, Federal Research Centre
• SHC, Superior Health Council

The Federal Agency for Food Chain Security is responsible for all verifications with regard to food safety.

The Department of Health and Social Care are responsible for:

• supporting and advising our ministers: we help them shape and deliver policy that delivers the government’s objectives
• setting direction: we anticipate the future and lead debate ensuring we protect and improve global and domestic health
• accountability: we make sure the department and our arm’s length bodies deliver on our agreed plans and commitments
• acting as guardians of the health and care framework: we make sure the legislative, financial, administrative and policy frameworks are fit for purpose and work together
• troubleshooting: in the last resort, the public and Parliament expect us to take the action needed to resolve crucial and complex issues

The Ministry of Health of the Republic of Lithuania is an institution that exercises executive powers, carries out State administration functions established by the laws and other legal acts in the health care sector, and implements State policy in the health care sector.

Mission is to form and implement health policy that ensures public health, high quality health promotion activities, and rational use of resources.

Strategic goals of the Ministry of Health

Assurance of public health care by strengthening the health of the population, prevention and control of diseases. Improvement of public health care activities in compliance with the requirements of EU legal acts. Assurance of effective prevention of diseases, reduction of the morbidity and mortality of the population, giving special attention to the health care of pregnant women and infants, health preservation and improvement of children and youth. Reduction of morbidity from communicable and non-communicable diseases by removing them causing factors as well as reducing consequences that occur due to traumatic events and accidents.

Refining observation of public health and privity of population. Improvement of measures of fast and effective response to public health threats. Strengthening of public mental health promoting a social environment favourable to individuals. Active prevention of alcochol, drug addiction and other addictive disorders. Unification of primary individual and public health care. Improvement of methods of impact assessment on public health through development of public health monitoring.

Assurance of accessible and qualitative personal health care through improvement of the activities of health care institutions. Improvement of the safety and quality of individual health care services ensuring their compliance with EU standards and Lithuanian legislation. The goal is to create equal conditions for all citizens of the country to receive the necessary health care services. All health care services should be provided by juridical persons under the health care institutions requirements; all physical persons, who are providing health care services, should have appropriate qualification according EU standards. The goal is to insure operative and safe disease and condition diagnostic by providing pathological examination and expertises. Accessibility improvement of modern treatment methods, promotion of organs transplantation and blood donor ship. State control and expertise of personal health care services.

Strengthening of health care quality management, control of implementation of quality management and internal medicine audit systems. To ensure that only qualitative, safe, efficacious and affordable medicinal products are in the Lithuanian market.

Application of authorisation procedures of medicinal products during which their quality, safety and efficacy is assessed, strengthening of market control of medicinal products, implementation of compulsory provision of pharmaceutical services to patients, encouraging rational use of medicinal products. Improvement of the pricing and reimbursement system of medicines rationally using allocations that are assigned for medicine reimbursement.

Assurance of effective health care through improvement of administration and funding of the health system. Improvement of management, co-ordination and financing of the health care system, restructuring of the network of health care institutions according to national requirements and international practise. Creating of sufficient state, county and municipalities’ personal and public health care institutions system, anticipating public health services to public.

Providing of health care programmes. Improvement of administration of the health care system in order to use rationally EU and other funds allocated for improving of health care services providing, implementation of new and modern treatment methods and improvement of treatment process.

To execute active policy of staff planning. To ensure staff qualification and administrative competence upgrading.

Assurance of effective use of the funds for individual health care from the budget of the Compulsory Health Insurance Fund and appropriate representing interests of insured persons. Following the main principles of health insurance: proper administration of funds – more and better services,to improve equal financing of health care services for the entire population, to increase the efficiency of the health care system and to implement effective methods of the use of funds; to improve quality and accessibility of health care services by providing financial balance system, to promote implementation of modern technology, disease prevention and appropriate use of medicines.

Assurance of effective use of the funds for individual  health care from the budget of the Compulsory Health  Insurance Fund and appropriate representing interests of insured persons.

Following the main principles of health insurance: proper administration of funds – more and better services, to improve equal financing of health care services for the entire population, to increase the efficiency of the health care system and to implement effective methods of the use of funds; to improve quality and accessibility of health care services by providing financial balance system, to promote implementation of modern technology, disease prevention and appropriate use of medicines.

The Public Health Regulation Department / Superintendence of Public Health is responsible to develop and implement strategies to promote and improve public health; issue standards for public health; licence health care service and diagnostic facilities; regulate health care professions; advise the Minister responsible for Health on matters regarding public health; ensure that the regulatory functions emanating from law are properly discharged and carry out any other function emanating from national legislation.

The Superintendent of Public Health gives direction to the directorates falling within the Superintendence of Public Health including the Environmental Health Directorate, Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Directorate and the Health Care standards Directorate.​

The National Institute of Public Health (INSP) provides technical assistance, including the provision of data, expertise and training, on public health to the Ministry of Health and its decentralized structures. The main goals of the INSP are oriented towards: a) prevention, surveillance and control of communicable and non-communicable diseases; b) monitoring of health status; c) promoting health and health education; d) assessment of occupational health; e) monitoring of health in relation to the environment; f) drafting of regulations in the field of public health; g) managing public health; h) development of specific public health services.

The public health NIHP’s profile as an institution aiming to deliver activities for prevention, surveillance and control of communicable and non-communicable diseases, health promotion and education for health is appropriately matching the tasks in the proposal.