About us
In recent years, progress has been observed in every area of our life as a result of the socio-economic policy pursued in Azerbaijan. This progress also affected health care - a significant area of public health protection. Increased attention and care for health care turn the health care system of Azerbaijan into an industry that keeps pace with the times, responds to global changes, and makes progress. In healthcare, reforms are being carried out in various directions, large investments are being made to improve healthcare infrastructures, and large-scale measures are being carried out. The availability of a perfect scientific-theoretical basis is one of the necessary conditions, to increase the efficiency of reforms and in general, to organize public health successfully. The Public Health and Reforms Centre of the Ministry of Health was established in September 2006, which was a progressive step towards reforms in the health care system.
Along with preventive, clinical services, and control of the provision of medical services in medical institutions, public health implies the organized activities of the national health system that encompass control over factors that directly and indirectly affect health, the protection of the environment, promoting and supporting the management of healthy lifestyles, developing strategies and programs to address health-related problems, ensuring social equity in the provision of health services to the population, politics, and economics of health and other broader aspects of health care. Public health is the process of mobilizing and engaging local, state, national, and international resources to assure the conditions in which people can be healthy.
The regulations of PHRC also reflect the main points of this concept. Thus, PHRC carries out the organization of public health services, the development and implementation of health programs, the regulation of reforms in medical institutions, and the methodological implementation of reforms in the field of health financing. At the same time, PHRC is preparing recommendations on the scientific substantiation of health care reforms in Azerbaijan, the adaptation of health legislation with modern requirements and reforms, the professional development of health personnel, reforms in primary health care, and the implementation of innovative medical technologies in health care. The organizational structure of PHRC was designed to achieve precisely these goals.
PHRC executes its functions through the following departments:
- Department of Health Policy and Planning;
- Health Communication Department;
- Department of Medical Quality Standards;
- Project Coordination Department;
- Training-Resource Department with Simulation Center;
- Department of Public Health;
- Department of Primary Health Care and Family Medicine;
- Department of Statistics, Monitoring, and Analysis;
- Department of Health Technologies and Telemedicine;
- Department of Accreditation;
- Department of Certification;
PHRC is a unique healthcare organization with its human resources. In addition to medical staff, the center employs other professionals, including lawyers, economists, architects, ecologists, engineers, psychologists, health communicators, sociologists, and journalists compatible with the modern approach to the concept of public health. Setting up such a very qualified staff certainly creates favorable conditions for the implementation projects оn healthcare.
Since PHRC has been operating for only a few years, great attention is paid to its institutional development and the professional development of its employees. There is regular training with leading local and international experts on public health, management of medical institutions, health economics, evidence-based medicine, epidemiology and biostatistics, health communication, etc.
Acquaintance with the experience of developed countries, cooperation of departments and health care institutions of Azerbaijan with various international organizations are vital for the successful resolutions of reforms in the health care system. PHRC also pays great attention to the implementation of various projects in cooperation with international organizations, taking into account this factor. Communication plays a crucial role in all health projects and programs in healthcare.
In the implementation of projects dedicated to public health, PHRC cooperates with the government organizations such as the Ministry of Education, the State Committee for Family, Women, and Children, the Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights (Ombudsman), the Azerbaijan State Institute for the Improvement of Physicians named after A.Aliyev, Scientific Research Institute of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the Republican AIDS Center, international organizations such as WHO, UNICEF, Worldbank, UNFPA, UNDP, USAID, Bloomberg Initiative Foundation, Global Fund, as well as non-governmental organization such as the Azerbaijan Red Crescent Society.
On our corporate website www.isim.az you can find information about the ongoing and implemented projects by the Public Health and Reforms Center (DHS, HBSC, STEPS, WASH, GYTS, and others).
