European Public Health News * EUPHA President's Column * EUPHA office news * Message from the Who Regional Director for Europe: Non-Communicable Diseases, Inequalities and Development * Health at a Glance: Europe 2010 * Public Health and Welfare - Welfare Development and Health, 10-12 November 2011, the Bella Centre, Copenhagen, Denmark

In this section of the EJPH, we provide you with updates from EUPHA, WHO/EURO and DG Sanco. All three contributions look at the state-of-the-art of European public health as well as presenting thoughts on future public health issues. News from EUPHA office looks at our objectives of capacity, knowledge and policy building and EUPHApedia. Of course, we are providing you with the latest information on the fourth European Public Health Conference, Copenhagen 2011. Twentieth century health systems were dominated by clinicians, effectiveness and efficiency. The two revolutions: the control of infectious disease and the battle against non-communicable disease are both still ongoing but the results of these revolutions are very different if we compare the situation in the developed world and in the developing countries. The infant mortality rate is 5.1 in Canada and 97.1 in Haiti, the rate of maternal deaths is 35 times higher in Latin America than in North America, the life time risk of death is 1 in 7.700 deliveries in Canada and 1 in 17 in Haiti. In Western industrialized countries, the success of public health has in many cases changed the nature of these societies making them ‘health societies’, putting health as a main theme in social and political life and as a major individual goal with a high life expectancy and ageing populations and an expansive health and medical care system. This situation is in contrast with the reality of the poorest countries where health is a matter of survival, neglected in the development policies and there is still a lack of access to even the most basic services and a falling life expectancy. To face these challenges the developed world is still too lazy and ineffective. We cannot continue to do public health as we used to but we need a third revolution that needs to be a global revolution helping to define the characteristics of the global society of the 21st century. Twenty-first century will be dominated by citizens, patients and values, even because the challenges facing 21st century world are massive and growing. We know, and have to admit that there are still, after all these years of progress, Four Giant Concerns which threaten public trust in health systems: Errors Variable quality Waste of resources and Inequalities of health status, of resource availability, of access and of outcomes. In addition to the Four Giant areas of Concern listed above, we will also have to face Four More Gigantic Challenges: Changing Patterns of Disease. The rise and rise of chronic disease because of population ageing, from obesity and the metabolic syndrome, and the new cost-effective interventions, which convert currently insoluble problems into needs which must be met. Alongside this we face the threat from new and re-emerging infectious diseases increasingly unconstrained by current antimicrobials. Increasing demand on a shrinking working age workforce. An increasingly hostile natural and social environment. With climate change we must expect more frequent extreme weather events, and that the consequent competition for scarce resources, especially for water, will increase social instability and lead to more frequent violence both within and between communities. Limited resources: no more money (and probably even less money for the next decade) and very much less carbon. These problems will not be solved only by more science but also by changing the culture of health professionals and in particular public health ones. We have to focus on people's problems and the systems needed to solve them, not on institutions. We have to put patients at the centre; share all the knowledge with them and make their responsibilities clear as well as our own and that of the health service. We have to manage knowledge at least as well as money. The future is not a place, like Rome, awaiting our arrival; it is more like a beautiful bridge something that we have to imagine, design and build. If we do not build it, other people will. 1. Gray M. Seven years of famine: health care after the crunch. Br Med J 2009;339:b3237. Following our president's advice that the future of public health is not a place, but a beautiful bridge, which we need to design and build together, I would like to update you on three important activities of EUPHA. Our mission is to build capacity, knowledge and policy, together with our members. Supporting our members in their activities by building capacity, knowledge and policy are essential building blocks for the European public health ‘bridge’ to the future. The first activity was launched officially on 2 February and is accessible to all our members. EUPHApedia is a search engine on European public health issues. At the start of this activity, EUPHA office had successfully included abstracts from nearly all our organized conferences, interesting news from projects and publications from WHO and the European Commission. Even though EUPHA office is committed to continue uploading all interesting information we receive, EUPHApedia will be really successful if fully used by our members: not only to search for interesting information, but also to upload interesting information to share with all EUPHA members. Year 2011 will be the pilot phase of this new project, where EUPHApedia will only be accessible for our members and only members can upload information. During this pilot year, the project will be carefully described and evaluated. In November 2011, we will present the results to our Governing Board. If all goes well, EUPHApedia will be accessible to all those interested as of January 2012. The second activity is the production of EUPHA reports and EUPHActsheets. EUPHA reports are to be published on specific subjects in close collaboration with our sections. The reports will be around 20–30 pages listing the activities and recommending EUPHA's possible involvement in the subject. A first report on Environment and public health is in its final stage and may be available on our web site as of April 2011. A second report on Health impact assessment is currently being discussed. EUPHActsheets are short (4 pages) summaries of EUPHA reports aimed at informing policymakers and practitioners. The third activity that we hope to launch at the latest in June 2011 is really looking at the future of public health. EUPHAnxt is a free and open initiative that aims to include younger professionals and students interested in public health in the European public health network. European public health is like a new house: built brick by brick, resulting in a beautiful living area. Dineke Zeegers Paget EUPHA Executive Director Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are the main killers in the WHO European Region. Cardiovascular diseases, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes mellitus account for 86% of deaths and 77% of the disease burden. Almost 60% of the disease burden in Europe is attributable to seven leading risk factors: high blood pressure, tobacco use, harmful use of alcohol, high blood cholesterol, overweight, low fruit and vegetable intake and physical inactivity. There is an intimate link between the burden of NCDs and the drivers of human and economic development. Data on mortality show that people living in high-income countries of the European region of WHO have on average a far lower risk of dying from NCDs than people in low- and middle-income countries. There are also disturbing socioeconomic inequities in the burden of NCD mortality within countries regardless of their level of income. NCDs are also undermining the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The links between NCDs and health-related MDG goals (HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and child and maternal health) mean that NCDs need to be tackled if the MDG targets are to be achieved in low- and middle-income countries. As a result, in 2010, the World Health Assembly Resolution and UN MDG Summit Outcome Document recognizing the growing burden of NCDs, urged Member States, international development partners and WHO, to accelerate progress and take actions to achieve the goals. The integrated regional strategy on NCDs that was adopted in 2006 shows that there is a good understanding of the wider societal approaches to addressing the NCD epidemic through intersectoral action. WHO has been highlighting the links between NCDs and human development and proposes solutions that benefit the poorest countries of the region, and the implications of this for the United Nations High Level Summit next year. In line with the Action Plan for the Implementation of the Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of NCDs, we at the Regional Office have now started to work on a European action plan, which will come to the Regional Committee in 2011. This Action Plan will also inform the development of the new European Policy for Health (Health 2020), which will be presented to the Regional Committee for approval in 2012. In conclusion, we are at a historic moment in public health. We have the opportunity to make the world recognize not just the dimension of the NCD burden, but also its root causes in development. We have the opportunity to bring the diversity and the rich experience of Europe to bear on finding innovative solutions. The European Commission and the OECD jointly presented the first edition of ‘Health at a Glance: Europe’. This report presents key trends on health, health systems and health spending in the 27 Member States of the European Union, plus three European Free Trade Association countries (Iceland, Norway and Switzerland), and Turkey. This publication is the result of a long-standing collaboration between the OECD and the European Commission, and also involves the World Health Organization as a main provider of data and information. The cooperation among these three main players in the international health arena was vital to harmonizing the collection of health data in the recent years. In fact, they adopted the System of Health Accounts (SHA) to establish a first joint collection of data on health expenditure and financing in 2005. Given the success of this first experience, a new joint data collection was started in 2010, focussing on non-monetary health-care data. All these joint efforts have the double goal of reducing the burden of national data producers, who have to respond to a single questionnaire, and improving the comparability of data at international level. ‘Health at a Glance: Europe 2010’ is presented according to the European Community Health Indicators (ECHI) shortlist: a set of core health indicators developed in the last decade by European experts, to guide the development and reporting of health statistics. Following the ECHI structure, the report is divided into four sections, covering, respectively: Health status Determinants of health Health-care resources, services and outcomes Health expenditure and financing Each indicator in the book is presented in a user-friendly format, consisting of charts illustrating variations across countries and over time, brief descriptive analyses highlighting the major findings conveyed by the data, and a methodological box on the definition of the indicators and any limitations in data comparability. An annex provides additional information on the demographic and economic context within which health systems operate. ‘Health at a Glance: Europe 2010’ is addressed to health professionals aiming to help them identify best practices around Europe. However, it is mainly intended to serve as a useful tool for decision-makers who need to assess the performance of the system they are responsible for, aiming to improve its efficiency, effectiveness and quality. The report was possible thanks to the valuable contributions of the national data correspondents from all involved countries that provided most of the data and metadata utilized in the analyses. The European Public Health Association (EUPHA), the Association of Schools of Public Health in the European Region (ASPHER) and the Danish Society of Public Health (DSOPH) are pleased to invite you to the 4th European Public Health Conference, combining the 19th annual EUPHA meeting, the 33rd annual ASPHER meeting and the 5th annual Public Health days of DSOPH. The main theme of the conference is Public health and Welfare—welfare development and health. At the Copenhagen meeting all posters will be moderated. This means that all presenters should not only prepare a poster but also a 5 min oral presentation of the main results. The presentation will be followed by a 5 min discussion at the poster. This means that we merge the very best from the oral presentation and poster presentation in one session. We will have the opportunity to listen to an oral presentation and afterwards have the opportunity to discuss more in depth with the poster holder about various issues of interest. It is our hope that this will increase the credit to the poster presentations acknowledging the huge work which is behind such a poster. Don't miss your chance to submit an abstract for the conference. Abstracts can be submitted until 1 May 2011 at www.eupha.org/site/upcoming_conference.php.

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