The 43rd APACPH Conference, co-hosted by Ministry of Health and Welfare, from 20th to 22nd October 2011 at Yonsei Severance Hospital, on “public health law and ethics”.
Global cooperation and law system realignment were called for and the “Seoul Declaration” was pronounced at the conference.
The 43rdAPACPH (Asia-Pacific Academic Consortium for Public Health) Conference, where information and academic knowledge were exchanged and shared for the strengthening of the education and research capacity through cooperation among the member institutions in the Asia-Pacific region as well as for the development of public health enhancement policies of individual countries, was held in Seoul.
The discussion of the conference this time focused on “public health law and ethics,” and was attended by around 500 scholars and policy experts from 50 countries across Asia. This year’s conference was hosted by the Graduate School of Public Health of Yonsei University and jointly held by WHO, WPRO, Ministry of Health and Welfare of Korea, the Graduate Schools of Public Health of Seoul National University, Korea University, Catholic University of Korea, and Chonbuk University. The conference was also cosponsored by the Korean Society for Preventive Medicine, the Korea Public Health Association and the Asian Institute for Bioethics and Medical Law.
The 43rd APACPH conference was chaired by Kim, Han Joong, President of Yonsei University and its organizing committee, by Sohn, Myong Sei, Dean of the Graduate School of Public Health of Yonsei University. It officially began on 20th at Yonsei Severence Hospital, Eun Myung Auditorium with congratulatory remarks given by Sohn, Gunn Yik, Vice Minister of Health and Welfare and Dr. Shin, Young Soo, Regional Director of WHO WPRO.
With the pre-conference workshops on 18 Oct. as a start, 21 symposium and 23 oral sessions were held for three days from 20th to 22nd at Eun Myung Auditorium and Yonsei Health System Administration Hall under the main theme of “public health law and ethics,” with various topics such as health promotion, disease control, disaster management and control, community health care center information, and community health. Around 750 abstracts were submitted and approximately 1000 participants including 500 foreign attendees from different nations across the Asia-Pacific region participated.
Particularly, representatives from the member organizations pronounced the adoption of the “Seoul Declaration” to establish strategies to tackle public health issues in the Asia-Pacific region. The “Seoul Declaration” emphasizes the importance of strengthening of public health organization systems through realignment of public health-related laws and ethics to ensure effective actions on health issues in the Asia-Pacific region by reinforcing the education and research capacity and it calls for the expansion of cooperation among member states and various international health-related organizations.
A shared recognition of the significance of achievement of health-related New Millennium Development Goals in the Asia-Pacific region was highlighted and a commitment for the implementation of detailed strategic action plans required for accomplishment of the goals was made at the conference.
WHO Expert Consultation was also included in the conference program, at which in-depth discussions took place on how to improve health-related law systems in developing countries in the Asia-Pacific region, thus making an actual contribution to enhancing health conditions in those countries. At the consultation, health-related law systems in Japan, Korea, and Australia, etc were reviewed, providing a basis for human and material aid to help each member state apply such systems into its own law systems.
Also, Hastings Center, a globally renowned American bioethics research institute, founded in 1969, hosted a symposium on the topics of “bioethics and policies on cancer patient treatment” and the “hospital ethics committee” jointly with the Korea Society for Medical Ethics.
The 43rd APACPH served as an important opportunity for presenting a cooperation model in the public health area across regional borders through the systemization of health policies in Asia.
