The Alliance of Public Health Associations of the Americas: New Board Members

WFPHA congratulates the new elected board members of the Alliance of the Public Health Associations of the Americas (AASPA), Anulfo Lopez as President, Rosana Onocko as Vice-President, and Fernando Sacoto as Acting Director. WFPHA is looking forward to continuing the fruitful collaboration with the new leadership of AASPA.

Public Health and Emergency Workforce Roadmap: The Third Steering Committee Meeting

In the historic setting of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS), the third World Health Organization (WHO) Public Health and Emergency Workforce Roadmap Steering Committee meeting took place on July 6 – 7, 2023, in Rome. The Committee considered and endorsed new guidance and tools for countries.

More than 75 members of the Roadmap Steering Committee and Technical Advisory Groups have dedicated several months to reviewing and revising the three interconnected core areas of the Roadmap: Revising the Essential Public Health Functions (EPHFs), Competency-Based Public Health Education, and Measuring the Public Health Workforce, which were presented during this meeting. A general consensus has been reached on the readiness of these documents for release after final coordination editing.

The focus will now shift to implementing the three sections of the Roadmap, aiming to utilize these tools in 100 countries by 2024. Two additional WHO working groups will provide communication and coordination support.

Detailed discussions were held on the training of future generations of professionals involved in public health and emergency response, with a particular emphasis on the tasks performed by public health experts. This highlighted the local knowledge and skills required by students and early-career professionals. Early-career public health professionals have the potential to benefit from the revised and redesigned education framework and play a pivotal role in disseminating the EPHFs.

The WFPHA has endorsed the Roadmap and is actively involved in and supporting this work through the WFPHA Public Health Professionals’ Education and Training (PET) Working Group. The Roadmap subgroup on competency-based education is co-chaired by Dr Priscilla Robinson, Co-Chair of the PET Working Group.

Young WFPHA will contribute by identifying and supporting existing and emerging links between the Roadmap and its young audience in order to bolster the remarkable work accomplished so far.

The Roadmap stems from the 2021 Declaration of the G-20 Health Ministers, under the Italian G-20 presidency, which recognized the “importance of investing in and protecting an adequate and well-trained health workforce and community-based health services, addressing a global shortage, increasing productive capacities to meet needs in the face of health risks and emergencies, as well as insufficient human resource capacity at national and local levels.”

Why Health is Public: Insights from the 17th National Health Conference in Brazil

The 17th National Health Conference takes place in Brasilia from July 2–5. The Executive Director of the WFPHA, Prof. Bettina Borisch, takes part in this event.

The Conference gathers 6,000 participants and is one of the country’s most important on public health. The main theme of the Conference is “Defend the Single Health System (SUS), Life and Democracy – Tomorrow Will be Another Day”. To understand, the SUS is the Brazilian health care system that is public and offers Universal Health Coverage to all Brazilians.

The Conference is organized by the National Health Council (CNS) and the Brazilian Ministry of Health. Health Councils exist at the municipal, state, and federal levels. Delegates to these councils are patients, academics, health professionals, and minority groups. They are elected to represent the needs of the population concerning “their” health care system. This is a democratic representation that links citizens, users, to their health care system. Over four days, panel discussions, debates, and working groups are held to come to final resolutions. Prof. Borisch points out that “this is a great and sometimes difficult way for citizens to have real participation and ownership in their health care system. There is a strong will in the audience to defend the SUS. It seemed to me that the will was even stronger now that there was a change in government away from the previous right-wing, neoliberal president. It was also felt that the intimate link that exists between a healthy life for all and democracy was understood.”

Prof. Borisch also points out that “such a process is not without difficulties, but health has to be a public affair, an affair of all. Everywhere we have to find ways to render health public, it is the finest task of public health professionals. Health and disease are very individual, and so we will have to embrace the diversity of demands of groups, minorities, and subgroups without, at the same time, guaranteeing the right to health to all.”

“The Conference was a showcase of all these aspects. A vibrant and multicolored crowd that, with all their voices and wishes, transmitted the feeling that health in Brazil is a public affair. We could all learn from Brazil as to how render health an active part of our democracies,” she mentions. Or to cite Health Minister Nísia Trindade Lima, who speaks at the Conference: “One of the first acts of the Ministry of Health was a meeting with the CNS to bring back social participation”.

The Conference takes place every four years. It is an important space for dialogue between government and society for the construction of public health policies.

Global Public Health Policies: Public Health Associations’ Perspectives

The definition of advocacy may exhibit slight variations across different disciplines. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), health advocacy is a combination of social actions designed to gain political commitment, policy support, social acceptance, and systems support for a particular goal or program. Advocacy is identified as one of the core functions of public health and is a key tool for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Within global public health, advocacy involves the engagement of diverse stakeholders in decision-making to improve population health. National public health associations and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) play a vital role in advocating, advising decision-makers, guiding initiatives, and raising citizens’ awareness. Advocacy initiatives and campaigns, joint position statements, resolutions, and internal policies are recognized as the main tools used to influence policy in public health advocacy.

In a recent study by the researchers of the WFPHA, they investigated the focus of public health advocacy carried out by national public health associations over 4 years, between 2018 and 2021, to identify strengths and gaps in national and international advocacy and highlight areas where policy development could be strengthened. 12 national public health associations, including Ethiopia, Cameroon, South Africa, Nigeria, Canada, the United States of America (USA), Brazil, Spain, France, the United Kingdom (UK), Australia, and New Zealand, participated in their study, and a total of 220 policy documents were analyzed.

According to the study, the largest number of policy documents came from high-income countries and dealt with environmental health and communicable diseases, including COVID-19, with, however, important differences among regions. In the African region, public health advocacy focused mainly on strengthening health systems; Europe and South America were mostly concerned with communicable diseases and pandemic management; and North America and the Western Pacific regions focused primarily on climate change. In all regions, limited attention was paid to international health and health as a human right.

The study revealed that public health associations are active advocates for several public health issues. However, more effort should be devoted to implementing a more international and intersectoral approach, rooted in health as a human right.

According to the study, better use of resources and evidence to design health interventions, easy accessibility of data for policy and decision-makers, improved funding mechanisms, and citizen awareness are needed to strengthen the advocacy process.

The study recommended that in the future, advocacy efforts could involve more academics, journalists, and influencers, who would collaborate with national public health associations and professionals, as a single voice of civil society.

High-Level Symposium on Health Policy & Personalized Medicine for Cancer: Projecting Europe-China Collaboration in the Global Arena – A Report

Integrating China in the International Consortium for Personalized Medicine (IC2PerMed) project aims to foster collaboration between the European Union (EU) and China in the field of personalized medicine research, innovations, and policies. IC2PerMed, a Coordination and Support Action under the Horizon 2020 funding program, seeks to offer policymakers key solutions for harmonizing the approach to personalized medicine globally.

The IC2PerMed project is reaching its final phase successfully, with a recent High-Level Symposium on personalized medicine focusing on presenting the project’s outcomes and discussing its implementation at national and international levels. The symposium emphasized the potential adoption of personalized medicine in cancer and beyond, with a particular emphasis on China and Europe.

The healthcare system faces challenges in providing accurate and timely care for cancer patients. Digital health and artificial intelligence can play a significant role in improving patient health. However, progress in personalized medicine has been limited, and only a small percentage of cancer patients receive individualized care. The lack of support and insufficient allocation of resources hinder the implementation of personalized medicine in the EU.

China has recognized the challenges it faces in healthcare and aims to comprehensively address long-term health issues. The country has launched major personalized medicine projects, focusing on disease prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation. Personalized medicine is a strategic priority under China’s 13th Five-Year Plan, with significant investment in technological innovation and scientific advancements.

Collaboration between local governments and public health systems is crucial for the introduction of personalized medicine, and it should be seen as part of prevention efforts and cost-saving measures. However, challenges such as data sharing, regulatory pathways, ethical considerations, and training need to be addressed. Increasing health insurance supply, fostering international cooperation, and supporting research funds and scientist exchange programs are important steps.

While progress has been made, challenges such as limited resources, regulatory issues, and disparities persist. The implementation of personalized medicine requires collaboration, adequate training, and a focus on affordability and equity.