TNMU Held the Fifth Scientific Symposium “Public Health in the Social and Educational Dimensions – Challenges in the Conditions of Military Status and Prospects for Development”

On September 27-28, 2023, I. Horbachevsky Ternopil National Medical University in collaboration with Akkon University of Human Sciences, Berlin and State Institution “Public Health Centre of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine” organized the fifth scientific symposium with international participation “Public Health in the Social and Educational Dimensions – Challenges in the Conditions of Military Status and Prospects for Development”.

For TNMU Department of Public Health and Health Care Management, which is the host of the event, the symposium has become traditional for the fifth year in a row.

Due to the state of war, the event was held online.

Public health in Ukraine faced the challenge of preserving people’s health in the conditions of martial law and the prospects for solving these issues.

The opening of the symposium began with an introductory speech by the Rector of Ternopil National Medical University, Corresponding Member of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Honoured Worker of Science and Technology of Ukraine, DSc, Professor Mykhaylo Korda, in which he emphasized the need to introduce a powerful preventive public health system in Ukraine, justifying this position with a number of problems observed in Ukraine. In particular, the long-term stay of a large part of the population in a state of acute and chronic stress becomes a powerful factor triggering the development of new and complications of existing chronic diseases, primarily cardiovascular, oncological pathology, mental health disorders.

War causes possible outbreaks of infectious diseases, pollution of the environment as a result of fires, explosions, destruction of industrial facilities and warehouses. Therefore, the discussion and proposals for solving these complex issues within the framework of the fifth scientific symposium with international participation “Public Health in the Social and Educational Dimensions – Challenges in the Conditions of Military Status and Prospects for Development” are extremely relevant and necessary for maintaining the health of the population of Ukraine in today’s conditions.

The fact that in the conditions of a full-scale war, the public health system of Ukraine faces complex challenges, was emphasized in the congratulatory speech by Prof. Timo Ulrichs, Doctor of Medicine, Director of the Institute for Research in International Assistance (IRIA), Vice President of Akkon University of Human Sciences in Berlin, Head of the Study Programs in Global Health and International Assistance in Disasters and Emergency Situations.

Welcome speech by the Professor of the Technical University of Munich, Head of the Department of Public Health and Disease Prevention, Dr., Prof. Michael Laxy was also dedicated to the importance of the role of public health in preventing the development of infectious diseases in the conditions of man-made disasters provoked by the war in Ukraine.

The symposium focused on the importance of medical education and the issue of professional exchange through podcasts, which was highlighted in the report of the co-chair of the Institute for Institute for Research in International Assistance, Akkon University of Human Sciences in Berlin, Dr. Gaby Feldmann.

The report “International cooperation of TNMU Department of Public Health and Health Care Management: role in improving health and exchange of experience” was presented by Hanna Saturska, DSc in Medicine, Professor, Head of the Department of Public Health and Health Care Management of I. Horbachevsky Ternopil National Medical University, in which she focused attention on the fact that international, interdisciplinary and intersectoral cooperation in the direction of public health plays an important role in the conditions of martial law.

Hanna Saturska also demonstrated the importance of the educational environment for the training of public health specialists in the report “Public health master and PhD programs in Germany: systematic mapping of academic programs and stakeholder perspectives”.

The report by Dmytro Liashov, a researcher at the Institute for Research in International Assistance (IRIA), Akkon University of Human Sciences in Berlin, was dedicated to the impact of behavioural economics on health care, analysis of principles and application, with an emphasis on conscious disease prevention, which was relevant and informative.

As always, the report of Oksana Chaichuk, General Director of Ternopil Regional Centre for Disease Control and Prevention of the Ministry of Health, Chief State Sanitary Doctor of the region, in which she highlighted issues of public health at the regional level, was extremely informative.

Researcher of the Technical University of Munich, Department of Public Health and Disease Prevention, Dr. Anna-Yanina Stefan, spoke about the department’s new developments in the report “Mobile applications for health – a review of current evidence on effectiveness and their integration into health care systems” .

The report of Professor of the Department of Social Medicine, Public Health and Health Care Management of Dnipro State Medical University, DSc Valeriia Lekhan discusses the role of risk factors in the formation of the burden of diseases in Ukraine.

Ihor Gushchuk, DSc, Professor, Head of the Department of Public Health and Physical Education of the National University of Ostroh Academy, thoroughly highlighted the problems of the place of public health specialists and the challenges for the Ukrainian system of public health care related to Russian military aggression.

The report dedicated to new challenges against the background of old problems of water and public health by Andrii Mokienko, Associate Professor of the Department of Public Health and Physical Education, the National University of Ostroh Academy, DSc, Senior Researcher, was extremely informative since special emphasis was placed on the issues of military and man-made disasters and their consequences on the quality of water supply.

The report by Nataliia Volotovska, Associate Professor of the Department of Physiology, Basics of Bioethics and Biosafety “Storytelling is an effective method of art therapy practice in overcoming the consequences of PTSD” was extremely emotional.

The report “Men’s Sexual Health and Behavioural Risk Factors” by Volodymyr Trishch, Associate Professor of the Department of Urology at Ivano-Frankivsk National Medical University, attracted considerable interest, where he emphasized such an important risk factor in the occurrence of these problems as post-traumatic stress disorder.

At the end of the symposium, the participants listened to the report of Anastasiia Budarna, a fourth-year student of the Faculty of Medicine, specialty “Medicine”, about cardiovascular diseases as a global challenge to public health.

In total, about 100 participants took part in the symposium, including international partners of TNMU from Germany, professors, teachers, organizers and specialists in the field of public health of Ukraine. The Ukrainian side was represented by more than 16 institutions of higher education, scientific and medical and preventive institutions.

The exchange of experience and the knowledge gained during the discussion will contribute to the creation of a scientific basis for the formation of strategic decisions in the field of public health in war conditions and the development of educational activities regarding the training of public health specialists in Ukraine.

Further discussions of public health problems took place at breakout sessions.

The moderators of the plenary session were DSc, Prof. Hanna Saturska and DSc, Prof. Nataliia Terenda. The Ukrainian-English and English-Ukrainian translation of the Symposium reports was provided by the Associate Professor of the Department of Public Health and Health Care Management, PhD Yurii Petrashyk, technical support for the online event was provided by Associate Professor of the Department of Public Health and Health Care Management, PhD Nataliia Slobodian and specialists of the Department of Technical Teaching Aids.