Ben-Gurion University to open country’s fourth school of public health
Recognition of the importance of subjects taught by such institutions is gaining.
By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICHBen Gurion University(photo credit: WWW.PIKIWIKI.ORG.IL)
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev’s Faculty of Health Sciences has decided to open a School of Public Health, thus joining the Hebrew University, Tel Aviv University and the University of Haifa.The importance of subjects taught by such institutions – including the prevention of disease through proactive measures and public education, as well as epidemiology and managing health systems, among others – has become clear and recognized even by the Health Ministry in recent years.The planned school in Beersheba is part of the faculty’s strategic plan, and its implementation was made possible after the approval of the faculty council, the coordinating committee and the university senate.The school will include the following departments: gerontology and sociology of health, a department of health systems management, emergency and disaster management and research centers in the fields of nutrition, health, the environment and aging.The head of the Faculty of Health Sciences, Prof. Amos Katz, has named Prof. Nadav Davidovitch, head of BGU’s health systems management at the Guilford Glazer Faculty of Business & Management, to head the school, with the appointment valid for two years. As its deputy, Dr. Natalia Bilenko, director of the master of public health program, was appointed to assist him in the process of establishing the school.Katz explained that “the establishment of the school is one of the flagship projects of the faculty, a process that will promote and strengthen public health research activities, national and international connections and visibility and public health education. It will be attractive to both Israeli and foreign students. Prof. Davidovich has an important task ahead of him. It will not be simple, but I have no doubt that he will succeed in his new position.”Davidovitch is an expert in epidemiology and public health and serves as assistant dean for external relations. He is also chairman of the Public Health Physicians Association in the Israel Medical Association and a member of the executive committee of the European Public Health Association.
