EuSANH
The Health Council is a member of the European Science Advisory Network for Health (EuSANH). For more information, visit http://www.eusanh.eu.
EuSANH is a European network of scientific advisory bodies in the field of public health.
Mission and working procedure
The mission of EuSANH is to encourage independent scientific advice to national and European authorities in the field of health, aimed at supporting an evidence-based public health policy. The advisory opinions can also be of importance to professional groups and the general population. To achieve this goal, EuSANH focuses on an international exchange of knowledge (national reports), mutual consultation of national experts, coordination of work programmes and joint efforts in preparing the advisory reports.
Members
Scientific advisory bodies from 13 different countries are currently represented and more countries are expected to follow suit.
The current EuSANH members are:
- Belgium, Superior Health Council, http://www.health.fgov.be/CSH_HGR;
- The Czech Republic, National Institute of Public Health, http://www.szu.cz;
- Finland, National Public Health Institute, http://www.ktl.fi;
- France, Haute Autorité de Santé, http://www.has-sante.fr;
- Germany, Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care, http://www.iqwig.de / German Institute of Medical Documentation and Information, http://www.dimdi.de;
- The Nederland, Health Council of the Netherlands, http://www.gr.nl;
- Poland, National Institute of Public Health- National Institute of Hygiene, http://www.pzh.gov.pl/aindex.html;
- Portugal, Ministry of Health, www.acs.min-saude.pt;
- Romania, National School of Public Health and Health Services Management, http://www.joannabriggs.edu.au/collab_ctrs/romania.php;
- Spain, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, http://www.isciii.es;
- Sweden, Swedish Council on Technology Assessment in Health Care, http://www.sbu.se;
- United Kingdom, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, www.lshtm.ac.uk;
- Zwitserland, Swiss Federal Office of Public Health, http://www.bag.admin.ch (potential member).
Advisors
Various European organisations fulfil an advisory role in the network: the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), the Health Evidence Network of WHO Europe, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), the Federation of European Academies of Medicine (FEAM) and the European Academies’ Science Advisory Council (EASAC).
EuSANH activities
- Report on 3rd EuSANH conference, The Hague, December 2008
- Report on 2nd EuSANH conference, Luxemburg, November 2007
- Report on first meeting of EuSANH, Brussels, September 2006
- Report on working conference 'Science advice on public health at national and European level', The Hague, September 2005
For the conference presentations, see also http://europa.eu/sinapse/directaccess/EUSANH/Public-Library/.
EuSANH-ISA
At the beginning of 2009, EuSANH was awarded a European subsidy for the project entitled ‘Improving Science Advice for Health in Europe, EuSANH’ (abbreviated to EuSANH-ISA). This project is a three-year collaboration between EuSANH member countries to improve the quality, effectiveness and efficiency of scientific advice aimed at promoting public health. Their remit is to chart the structure, function and working methods of the various EuSANH member countries and analyse representative reports as a basis for the development of a joint methodological framework of scientific advice to be published in the form of a handbook.
They will also develop a future communication and cooperation structure for EuSANH, including expansion to other countries. And finally, an initial Europe-wide advisory project will be conducted on the basis of the common methodological framework for advice and the cooperative structure. The Health Council is responsible for coordinating this three-year project (2009-2011).
For more information, visit http://www.eusanh.eu.
More information
The establishment of EuSANH was financially supported by the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport. EuSANH’s secretariat receives support from the Health Council of the Netherlands. The contact person is Dorine Coenen, tel. +31(0)70-3407473, eusanh@gr.nl. More information at http://www.eusanh.eu.
