PROJECT INFORMATION

Investigating the environmental causes of ill health is often highly complex. In many European countries, public health (environment) physicians are trained to lead these investigations. However, there is currently little co-ordination across Europe, and the specialisation has developed at different rates within EU countries. This fragmentation means there is variation between EU countries in their capacity to address environmental issues and their ability to implement the EU strategy to ensure its citizens' life in healthy environments. Bilateral exchange of experience and expertise between countries and regions of Europe would enrich all countries' ability to train and maintain their public health (environment) workforce.

Objectives

The principal objective of the PHEEDUNET is to create a European network of public health (environment) physicians to develop capacity in environmental health. The initial role of this network would be to coordinate countinuous professional development (CPD) of public health (environment) physicians across Europe. In particular, the project aims to:

• Identify training and CPD needs of public health (environment) physicians in all EU countries and assess levels of variation in access to training courses between countries;

• Assess how courses can be coordinated to improve access to training and CPD in different countries;

• Develop a proposal for a joint programme of training and CPD courses across EU countries that would be coordinated by the network.

Methods and means

Registration of organisation of public health (environment) physicians and analysis of their role, current capacity and training needs will initially be the main means of achieving the objectives of the project. To achieve this, key individuals in EU countries will be identified, infirmation regarding curricula and available courses collected. The project will also organise symposia and conferences during which the findings will be presented.

Expected outcomes

The project will establish a network of public health (environment) physicians, identify training needs in all EU countries and assess coordination of courses to improve access. Ultimately, the network will allow trainees from one country to take courses delivered another, and thus allow countries with limited capacity to access resources and skills in other countries. It will also promote cooperation between countries.

Although establishing the network requires some investment, we anticipate that the network will become sufficiently valuable to the specialisation for it to possibly become self-funding. Limiting the aims of the network to training and CPD should also keep ongoing administration costs for such long-term maintenance small.

(PHEEDUNET is a project funded by DG SANCO - Public Health Executive Agency (contract number 2006335). Information given here reflects the authors' views only. The Community is not liable for any use of that may be made of the information therein.)

Last modified:  05. 05. 2009. [dmy]
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