About us

In 1923, the first Department of Occupational Hygiene was founded at the medical faculty of the Kharkiv Medical Institute (KhMI). A famous hygienist, Professor Ezro Moiseevich Kagan (1887-1948) was the founder of the department and its first head. The creation of the Department of Occupational Hygiene was due to the need to train medical personnel for the practical fight against high levels of occupational diseases and injuries. The first teachers were Z.D. Gorkin, M.S. Karminsky, S.V. Miller, V.K. Navrotsky, Ya.D. Sakhnovsky.
The department begins its work with the development of educational instructions for practical lessons, production of illustrated tools, creation of textbooks and training programs. The student training program developed by the department in 1928 was approved as a base for higher educational institutions of Ukraine. “Course of lectures” by Professor EM Kagana has been used for many years as a major publication for students.

The department trains students according to educational and professional programs:
1st bachelor’s degree in specialties:

• 227 «Physical therapy, ergotherapy»
• 231 «Social work»
• 224 «Technologies of medical diagnostics and treatment»
• 223 «Nursing»;

Today, the priority directions in the scientific activity of the department are the scientific substantiation of methodological approaches regarding the establishment of pre-pathological states of the development of professional burnout among workers of socially significant professions, taking into account the risk of developing burnout, the nature of work, the peculiarities of sociodemographic and individual-typological characteristics, the state of mental health, types of personality and resistance to stress.

This direction has been implemented since 2011 as part of international cooperation with specialists in occupational medicine from the Federal Republic of Germany; which contributed to the conclusion of an agreement on cooperation between the Department of Occupational Medicine of the medical faculty of the Otto von Gerike University of Magdeburg (Germany) and the Departments of Hygiene and Ecology No. 2 and Internal and Occupational Diseases of the Kharkiv National Medical University. Work is currently being carried out to test the technique of early revealing pre-pathological conditions, taking into account the psychophysiological status of the workers’ body.

From January 2021, the Department’s employees started to carry out the research work “Substantiation of the criteria for pre-pathological states of professional burnout in health care workers”, head of the scientific research work – Zavhorodniі I.V., execution terms are from January 01, 2021 until December 31, 2023; it is financed by the Ministry of Health of Ukraine at the expense of the State Budget, State registration number 0121U110914.

The research work envisages an in-depth study of the characteristics of the psychophysiological status of the body of medical workers (sensorimotor reaction, features of attention and cognitive activity; variability of sensorimotor reactivity under the conditions of performing complex mental loads of processing visual and auditory information; characteristics of memory, working capacity and resistance to monotonous activity), with the establishment of interrelationships of these characteristics with individual-typological features of the personality depending on the degree of intensity of the labor process, with further substantiation of the criteria for pre-pathological states of the development of professional burnout in health care workers.

In cooperation with the Kharkiv National University of Radioelectronics, a research is being conducted, based on artificial intelligence, on the development of mathematical approaches for the verification of early informative diagnostic criteria for the development of professional burnout in medical workers in order to form a group of pre-pathological conditions. At the same time, joint work is being conducted on the study of the combined effect of environmental factors, the features of the formation of adaptive biological effects, the mechanisms of their manifestation, which is based on the fuzzy-c-means method, which involves the determination of criterion-significant indicators and the establishment of the share of the contribution of each of the factors in general biological effect.

Since 2019, within the framework of the contract with the “S.P. Grigoriev Institute of Medical Radiology and Oncology” of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, experimental studies are actively being conducted to determine the features of the effects of radioprotectors (S-heteryl-modified thiols) during acute irradiation in combination with cold stress.

Since 2022, scientific research work is also being conducted on the basis of the preschool educational institutions (PEI) of Department of Education of the Kharkiv City Council; it involves the development of hygienically substantiated measures to prevent professional burnout among teachers of preschool educational institutions, based on the hygienic assessment of working conditions in PEI and the results of a psychophysiological study. In 2023, the initiative scientific research work “Development of measures to prevent professional burnout among teachers of preschool educational institutions” was launched.

In 2023, a new direction of scientific research activity has been started, which involves an in-depth study of the impact of digital simulation technologies on the health of applicants for higher medical education based on the study of the hygienic foundations of the organization of training sessions using digital simulators, changes in the psycho-physiological state of students when mastering practical skills on various types of simulators with further substantiation of the criteria for revealing pre-pathological and pathological conditions.

Experimental research on scientific subjects is carried out in the scientific laboratory of the Department of Hygiene and Ecology No. 2, which has modern laboratory equipment for sanitary-hygienic, toxicological, biochemical, hematological and psychophysiological research.

In 2021, the dissertation work for obtaining the degree of Candidate of Medical Sciences was defended by assistant A.M. Shvets on the topic: “Hygienic substantiation of measures on prevention of diseases of adolescents based on their professional self-determination”.

In 2022, O.L. Litovchenko defended the dissertation work on the topic “Peculiarities of the formation of biological effects under the influence of electromagnetic radiation under conditions of cold stress in the experiment”, and she was awarded the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD).

The results of the scientific activity of the department include active participation in foreign scientific events, in particular, in the congress of the German Society of Medicine Wissenschaftliche Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Arbeitsmedizin und Umweltmedizin (DGAUM) Göttingen in 2012; Bregenz in 2013; Dresden in 2014; Munich in 2015, 2018 and 2022; Frankfurt in 2019; Jena 2021, 2023; Proceedings of the 2020 IEEE Third International Conference on Data Stream Mining & Processing (DSMP); MU-VARNA international partnerships forum digitalisation in education and health Varna in 2021; Proceedings of the 11th IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Data Acquisition and Advanced Computing Systems: Technology and Applications, IDAACS 2021; Information Technology and Implementation (IT&I-2021) 2022. Scientific achievements are also presented at scientific and practical conferences: “Current issues of occupational hygiene and occupational pathology” (Kyiv), “Medicine of the third millennium” (Kharkiv), “Current issues of public health and ecological safety of Ukraine” (Marzeev readings) (Kyiv), “Cold in biology and medicine” (Kharkiv), “Urgent problems of preventive medicine” (Lviv), “International medical congress of students and young scientists” (Ternopil) and others.

Scientific achievements of the department include publications in publishing houses indexed in the scientometric databases Scopus and Web of Science, Google Scholar, Scimago Journal Ranking, specialized scientific and practical national publications, participation in international scientific forums.

The results of the Department’s scientific research are registered as objects of intellectual property (patents for inventions, patents for utility models, copyright certificates for works, etc.). Along with this, the results of the scientific research works are implemented in the practical activities of the Kharkiv Regional Laboratory Center for Disease Control and Prevention of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, Communal Non-commercial Enterprise of Kharkiv Regional Council “Center for Emergency Medical Aid and Disaster Medicine” of the Department of Health Protection of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration, the Research Institute of Biology of V.N. Karazin KhNU, Communal Non-commercial Enterprise “Prof. O.I. Meshchaninov City Clinical Hospital of Urgent and Emergency Medical Care” of Kharkiv City Council, clinics of the State Institution “S.P. Grigoriev Institute of Medical Radiology and Oncology of the National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine”, as well as in the educational and methodological activities of specialized departments of M.I. Pirogov Vinnytsia National Medical University, O.O. Bogomolets National Medical University.

The annual scientific and educational conference “Clinical Environmental Medicine. Industrial environment as a health-forming factor” with the involvement of specialists in labor and employment of the population is held at the department.

The international activity of the Department of Hygiene and Ecology No. 2 is realized through participation in the international program of academic cooperation and exchange of scientists within the framework of the German Academic Exchange Program (DAAD). This project provided an opportunity to establish strong contact with academic colleagues from Otto von Guericke University (Germany, Magdeburg) and intensify cooperation with this institution. According to the project implementation program, at the Department of Occupational Medicine, Medical Faculty of Otto von Guericke University, Magdeburg (Germany) under the leadership of the head of the department Prof. Dr. med. habil. Irina Böckelmann, a statistical processing of the contingent of people of socially significant professions was conducted, which allowed to identify potential risks of psycho-emotional burnout.

Specialists of the department are constantly improving their skills, undergoing international internships:
Associate Professor P.O. Korobchansky – Higher School of International Relations and Social Communications, Chelm (Poland) “Evaluation of the quality of education in higher education institutions of the European Union – the Polish experience” certificate No. 284 dated 15.09-30.10.2019;

Assistant T.V.Merkulova «Organization of the educational process, training program, innovative technologies and scientific work», June 11-29, 2018, 108 hours in Higher school of social and economic in Przeworsk, (Poland), certificate IFC-WSSG/ WK/2018-134.

Curator of interns’ groups at the Department of Hygiene and Ecology No.2 is assistant N.P. Bilychenko.
At the Department of Hygiene and Ecology No. 2, training of scientific personnel who study in a one-year internship in the specialty “General Hygiene” graduates of higher medical educational institutions of III-IV levels of accreditation.

When working with interns at the department, they are guided by a standard curriculum and internship program for graduates of higher medical educational institutions of III-IV levels of accreditation in specialty “General Hygiene”, developed by order of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine No. 81 dated February 23, 2005.

The department has created methodical recomendations for practical lessons, abstracts of lectures, a list of practical skills and a list of recommended literature. Based on them, as well as based on the Standard Plan and the results of checking the initial level of knowledge, interns develop individual work plans at the Department of Attachment and internship bases.

Interns master the forms and methods of organizational and methodical work of the doctor, planning and reporting of work, analysis of the dependence of the health of the child population on environmental factors, the development of sanitary and health-improving measures.

Classrooms for interns are equipped with projection equipment, visual aids and methodical materials. The department has 10 R-line computers, which are used for educational purposes to work on modern test programs developed by the Ministry of Health of Ukraine for doctors-interns in hygienic disciplines, which significantly increases the amount of training and improves the level of training of interns. In 2020, 3 interactive ceramic boards 1800*1250 (with software), 3 compact multimedia system units with monitor mounting, a liquid crystal short-focus projector (16:10; LCD; 3800 ANSI), etc. were purchased for work with students at the department.
Throughout the training period, interns gradually acquire practical skills in drawing up work plans of corresponding departments, processing legislative documents, filling in accounting reports and statistical data processing for the preparation of documents on the regulation of environmental factors, environmental health, educational conditions children’s population; principles of carrying out and the organization of hygienic, improving actions preventing negative action of factors of external environment; gave a hygienic assessment of the impact of environmental factors on the health of the population, which is reflected in scientific and practical works.
The base of the internship for the correspondence cycle is the State Institution “Kharkiv Regional Laboratory Center of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine”. Interns have the opportunity to be acquainted with modern research methods in full, to participate in monitoring, examination of children’s products, foods. Experienced, highly qualified hygienists who have the highest and first categories in their specialty are the heads of interns at the Kharkiv RLC of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine.

Attestation of interns to determine knowledge and practical skills is carried out in accordance with the order of KhNMU No. 27-int dated 12.05.2021 “On attestation to determine the knowledge and practical skills of interns who complete 1-3-year internship”.

The examination commission for taking state exams in general hygiene for interns is approved in such a composition:
Chairman of the commission – Doctor of Medicine, Professor I.V.Zavgorodnii.
Secretary of the commission – Candidate of Medical Sciences, Associate Professor N.M. Filatova.

Members of the commission:
Vice-rector for scientific and pedagogical work of KhNMU – Candidate of Medical Sciences, Associate Professor I.V. Leshchyna
Director of the Educational and Scientific Institute of Postgraduate Education of KhNMU – Doctor of Medical Sciences V.V. Vyun
Acting Head of the Department of Hygiene and Ecology No. 2 Candidate of Medical Sciences, Associate Professor M.O. Sydorenko
Associate Professor of Department of Hygiene and Ecology No.2 Candidate of Medical Sciences, D.P. Pertsev
Acting General Director of the State Institution “Kharkiv RLC of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine” L.S. Makhota
Head of the organizational department of the State Institution “Kharkiv RLC of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine” N.M. Antonenko.

Previously, interns undergo a computer control of knowledge on the basis of the Educational and Scientific Institute of Education Quality of KhNMU.

A cycle of TU “Selected issues of nutrition of healthy and sick people” is annually organized at the Department of Hygiene and Ecology No.2.