The First Congress on Occupational Medicine and Expertise on Workability, with an international final conference on the EPSILON project organized by the Occupational Medicine Department of the Faculty of Public Health, was held on November 7 and 8 in Hall 6 of the National Palace of Culture.
The Science Forum was dedicated to the Awakening Day, 10 years after the department was created and the results of the ESFF funded international project, funded by the ESF, were presented.
The Congress was opened by Prof. Dr. Nvena Tsacheva – Head of the Department of Occupational Medicine and by the Head of the EPSILON Project Prof. Dr. Karolina Lyubomirova. Greetings were presented by the Vice President of Bulgaria, Mrs. Iliana Yotova, Deputy. President of the National Assembly Dr. Nigar Jafer, Rector of MU-Sofia Prof. Dr. Viktor Zlatkov, Dean of the FHP Prof. Dr. Tzekomir Vodenicharov, Deputy Ministers, Deputies, Representatives of Employers and Trade Unions, Universities and Labor Experts medicine.
Guest speakers at the forum were Dr. Ivan Ivanov – Head of the Occupational Health Team at the World Health Organization Headquarters, Geneva; Prof. Claudio Colozio – Head of the Occupational Medicine team at the University of Milan and Dr. Maria Bubas – Chair of the Occupational Medicine Training Working Group at the International Occupational Medicine Commission.
The program of the congress included presentations of leading specialists from Bulgaria and 4 European countries and Russia on occupational health issues, expertise of working capacity and the need for multidisciplinary training of personnel and creation of quality criteria in the activity of occupational health services.
The final EPSILON conference presented innovative practices – health promotion and strategic management disciplines incorporated into the Master’s degree programs in Public Health and Health Management and the postgraduate FHP training courses. The distance modules, part of the developed hybrid forms of training, which build on the electronic platform of the Faculty of Public Health of MU-Sofia were presented.
Prof. Lyubomirova presented data from the trainings and clinical laboratory studies of vulnerable groups working from 4 high-risk economic activities.
In gratitude for the fruitful cooperation with the University of Milan, an honorary badge and diploma from the PHF were presented to Prof. Dr. Claudio Colosio, an international partner of the EPSILON project.
The international activity of the Department of Occupational Medicine was further developed through the signing of co-operation agreements in the field of teaching and research with the state institutes of occupational medicine of Serbia, Russia, Croatia and Greece.
