Doha: Qatar University’s (QU) College of Health Sciences (CHS) hosts Sheikh Dr. Mohamed bin Hamad Al Thani, Director of Public Health Department at the Ministry of Public Health for a presentation as part of the CHS ‘This is Public Health’ campaign to promote public health education.

The ‘This is Public Health’ campaign was created by the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH) with the aim of raising awareness about the role of public health efforts in improving the lives and wellbeing of individuals and communities.

The event was attended by Professor Egon Toft, Dean of the College of Medicine and Vice President for Medical and Health Sciences, Professor Asma Al-Thani, Dean of CHS, as well as faculty and students of CHS.
In her address to the audience, Dr. Asma Al-Thani highlighted Sheikh Dr. Mohammed Al-Thani’s efforts in the country’s first Public Health Strategy launched last year and pointed to the importance of collaboration between academia and the health sector.

She said, “Dr. Mohammed’s visit today and his continuous support to our programs are examples of the collaboration between the QU Health Cluster and the health sector in the country. We look forward with great interest to learning more about the developments in the rapidly developing landscape of public health, which requires constant collaboration and complementarity of roles.”

The event concluded with an interactive session moderated by Dr. Hanan Abdul Rahim, Head of the Department of Public Health at CHS, in which Dr. Al-Thani addressed student’s questions. Commenting on the event, Dr. Mohammad Al-Thani said, “I am glad to be here today with you for the campaign, as the field of public health is as wide as the world. You can impact more than one person at a time, you will touch and improve the lives of thousands of people and impact the whole population at a time.”

He adds, “Public health service is an honor. We live in a world at constant risk of public health threats. That’s why it’s important that we invest in the public health system to find, stop, track and prevent these threats.”

Also part of the campaign was an educational session by the Hamad International Training Center, Kulluna initiative, where representatives discussed their work in the field of public health. Other activities of the campaign included high school visits, a photo competition encouraging students to capture images expressing public health efforts on campus, and a variety of interactive activities to promote public health.

Source: The Peninsula Qatar