On the 22nd of March there was a formal opening session of the Ukrainian’s first ever thematic advanced training course “Public Health in Ukraine: Development Strategy”.
On the 22nd of March there was a formal opening session of the Ukrainian’s first ever thematic advanced training course “Public Health in Ukraine: Development Strategy”. The event was attended by the Director of the Institute of Global Public Health (France) Full Professor Peter Boyle, Acting Head of Public Health Department of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine Full Professor Nataliia Piven, Managing Director of the State Institution “Centre of Public Health of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine” Full Professor Nataliia Nizova, Head Doctor of Kyiv Health Centre Full Professor Otto Stoika, Rector of NMAPE Full Professor Yuriy Voronenko, Vice-Rector for International Relations and International Students Research and Training Full Professor Olesya Hulchiy, heads of the departments of the Academy and many other experts involved in public health. The audience of thematic advanced training course is represented by health managers from all regions of Ukraine. 
In his opening speech Full Professor Yuriy Voronenko expressed his hope that implementing this course with involvement of Ukrainian and international experts will provide fundamentally new quality of approaches to the public health system in our country. Yuriy Voronenko briefly outlined the importance of training of experts in public health in the system of postgraduate and pregraduate education. He also underlined the necessity of bachelors training for their further work as assistants of experts in public health.
Full Professor Nataliia Piven mentioned that public health was an integral part of the health care system in every country, so the collaboration of specialists in different areas would make it possible to build an effective health care system.
Full Professor Nataliia Nizova called for avoiding stereotypes when making decisions and assessing the effectiveness of all measures in health care of modern Ukraine. She is full of expectations that the course trainees will create highly effective applied product taking into account regional specific features.
Full Professor Peter Boyle in his speech highlighted that living healthy involves a mix of physical, mental and emotional components. He noted that we take right steps towards improvement of the health care system. Full Professor Boyle also drew attention to the fact that Ukraine has a lot of skilled specialists and enthusiasts, so we have great prospects for further development.
Full Professor Olesya Hulchiy provided detailed information on the course trainees. The youngest member is 34, the oldest – 69; the average work experience in health care is 15 years; the group consists of approximately equal number of men and women; the trainees often took specialized training course in health management. Olesya Petrivna highlighted that such selection of participants, multidisciplinary approach and steady dialogue between lecturers and trainees will afford to develop high-quality package of proposals for introducing the public health system.
At the end of formal opening session Full Professor Boyle and Full Professor Voronenko signed a Memorandum of Understanding and Cooperation between Institute of Global Public Health (Lyon, France) and Shupyk National Medical Academy of Postgraduate Education.
Afterthe refreshmentbreak there were given two lectures by Full Professor Peter Boyle and Vice-Rector for Education Full Professor Oleksandr Tolstanov. The records of the lectures will be released to the public on the official YouTube channel of the Academy in the near future.