About us

The Department of Epidemiology of KhNMU is one of the oldest not only in Ukraine but also in the world. It was founded in 1930 by Mikhail Nikolaevich Solovyov, a student of the founder of the national scientific epidemiology, Academician Danylo Kirillovych Zabolotny. World-renowned scientist, member of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences, Honored Scientist of the USSR, Academician MM Solovyov headed the department from 1930 to 1969. In 1933, M.M. Solovyov published a textbook in Ukrainian on the course “Epidemiology”, and in 1936 – a manual for physicians and students “General Epidemiology”. These textbooks became the first printed publications in Ukraine in this area.

Today, the Department is one of the leading scientific institutions on epidemiological surveillance of infectious diseases, a training center for health care institutions in Ukraine. The Department has a scientific authority in the international medical community, is constantly evolving, responds quickly to the challenges and biological threats in the modern world, drawing attention to the priority of preventive medicine.
Material and technical support of the Department allows to apply modern pedagogical technologies in the educational process. The Department has a museum of the history of the Department and a scientific library, which are used in teaching and educational work. The Department has a scientific section of the Students Scientific Society of Kharkiv National Medical University.
During the period of its existence, the Department has trained 15 doctors and 65 candidates of medical sciences, currently, the department staff is working on three dissertations for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
The Department systematically holds scientific and practical conferences, the materials of which it publishes, and the bank of methodical recommendations and textbooks is constantly updated. Scientific achievements are summarized in the monographs of employees.

The department trains Students for Educational and Professional Programs (EPP) “Medicine”, “Pediatrics”, “Dentistry”, “Nursing” and “Public Health” in the Following Educational Components (disciplines):

• for students of higher education at the second (master’s) level of the 5th and 6th years of the I, II, III, IV medical faculties and the V, VI and VII medical faculties for the training of foreign students in the specialties “Medicine” and “Pediatrics” as the main educational components are “Epidemiology and Principles of Evidence-Based Medicine” and “Military Epidemiology”, selective educational components are “Current Issues of Immunoprophylaxis”, “Methods of Epidemiology in Clinical Medicine. Basics of Evidence-Based Medicine”, “Epidemiology and Prevention of Health Care Infections ” – full-time education;
• for students of higher education at the second (master’s) level of the 4th year in the specialty “Dentistry” with the main educational component being “Epidemiology”, the selective educational component is “Biostatistics and Clinical Epidemiology”, “Features of Disinfection and Sterilization in Dental Health Care Institutions”, “Epidemiology and Prevention of Health Care Associated Infections in Dental Health Care Institutions. Fundamentals of Infection Control”, “Actual Issues of Epidemiology and Prevention of Infections with an Aerosol Mechanism of Pathogen Transmission in the Practice of a Dentist” – full-time education,
• for students of higher education at the first (bachelor) level in the specialty selective educational components are “Epidemiology”, “Vaccine Prophylaxis in the Practice of a Nurse”, “The Role of a Nurse in the Prevention of Health Care Infections”, “Anti-epidemic Measures in Foci of Infectious Diseases”, «Reprocessing of Medical Devises in HealthCare Settings”, “Management of Medical Waste as a Component of Infection Control in HealthCare Settings”, “Biological Weapons, Bioterrorism. Defense and Prevention”, “Biological Safety and Biological Defense in Wartime and Peacetime” – full-time and extramural forms of education;
• for students of higher education at the second (master’s) level in the specialty “Nursing”, the main educational component is “Evidence-Based Medicine and Standardization of Nursing Care”, selective educational component is “Biological Safety and Biological Defense in Wartime and Peacetime” – correspondence form of education;
• for applicants of the second higher education at the master’s level in the specialty «Public Health», the main educational components are “Epidemiological Surveillance and Assessment of the State of Health and Well-Being of the Population”, “Modern Problems of Epidemic Diseases and the Organization of Anti-Epidemic Measures”, selective educational components are” Biological Safety and Biological Defense in Wartime and Peacetime”, “Fundamentals of Immunology and Immunoprophylaxis”, “Molecular Epidemiology. Parasitology” – correspondence form of education

Currently, the Department is actively using Distance Technologies in the educational process, Creating its own Distance Courses in Disciplines from educational components.

The main directions of research work of the Department are improvement and scientific substantiation of the system of epidemiological surveillance of infectious diseases, applying new methods, including methods of modeling of epidemic processes and information technologies; ensuring the country’s biosafety through the development and scientific substantiation of rational and effective preventive and anti-epidemic measures; development of modern technologies for infection control and prevention of infections associated with the provision of medical care, and ways to curb the resistance of microorganisms to antimicrobial drugs; creation of a system of epidemiological -epizootic surveillance of infections common to humans and animals, in the context of the “One Health” strategy, carrying out preventive and anti-epidemic measures under COVID-19.

Currently, employees are conducting an analysis of the impact of war and its consequences on the epidemic process of widespread infections on the basis of information technologies, an analysis of problems and challenges in the implementation of infection control in health care institutions and institutions of social protection of the population caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the war with Russia and related to these social and humanitarian disasters in Ukraine. A separate section of scientific work is the study of the epidemiology of non-communicable diseases, namely – the development of a set of measures for the prevention of food-related diseases in school-age children in Ukraine. Currently, the staff of the Department is working on the development of intelligent technologies for assessing the epidemic situation to support management decisions in the field of biosecurity and socio-mathematical modeling of the effectiveness of management of social and epidemic processes to ensure the security of Ukraine.

Over 300 articles and abstracts have been published in the last 5 years including in journals of the 1st and 2nd quartiles of the scientometric databases Scopus and Web-of-Science,; issued information letters – 3, guidelines – 21, monographs – 2, received 14 patents, 10 certificates of registration of copyright to the work.

The Department of Epidemiology cooperates fruitfully:
• with higher educational institutions and research institutes – departments of Kharkiv National Medical University and Educational and Scientific Medical Center “University Clinic” of KhNMU; National Medical University. O.O. Bogomolets (NMU); VN Karazin Kharkiv National University; Municipal non-profit enterprise of the Kharkiv regional council “Regional medical clinical center of urology and nephrology named after VI Shapovala ”; SI “Institute of General and Emergency Surgery. VT Zaitsev National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine “; SI “Institute of Microbiology and Immunology. І.І. Mechnikov National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine; National Aerospace University. ME Zhukovsky “Kharkiv Aviation Institute”; NSC “Institute of Experimental and Clinical Veterinary Medicine”; State Institution “National Institute of Therapy named after Malaya NAMS of Ukraine”, State Institution “Institute of Neurology, Psychiatry and Narcology of the National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine”, etc .;
• with institutions of practical health care – the Center of Public Health of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine; State Institution “Kharkiv Regional Center for Disease Control and Prevention of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine”; Military Medical Clinical Center of the Northern Region; СE “Municipal non-profit enterprise Shepetivka Center of primary health care” of Shepetivka District Council of Khmelnytska oblast; CMPH “Kharkiv Regional Children’s Clinical Hospital № 1”; CE “3rd City Clinical Hospital of Poltava City Council”; CMPH “Regional Specialized Orphanage” Zeleny Gai “; CMPH “Kharkiv Regional Center for AIDS Prevention and Control”; KP “Communal non-commercial enterprise “Center of primary medical and sanitary care No. 1″ of the Kamian city council of the Dnipropetrovsk region”

Department trains Doctors and Nurses of Health Care Settings in Theoretical Issues of the Epidemiology, Prevention and Epidemiological Surveillance of the most relevant Infectious Diseases and in Key Issues of Infection Control in Health Care Settings, such as Hand Hygiene of Medical Personnel, Management of Medical Waste, Vaccine Prophylaxis, etc.

The Department actively participates in joint international research projects, in cooperation with The Baltic Antibiotic Resistance collaborative Network (BARN) (EniLab projects, Healthcare Improvement Work in Europe: implementing guidelines prevention – HIWE, etc.), European Joint Action on antimicrobial resistance and healthcare-associated infections (EU-JAMRAI) (Europe fostering synergies projects to keep antibiotics working, HCAI, The Optimal Strategy of the Prevention of CAUTI), CDC (Centers for Disease Сontrol and Prevention, USA) and DTRA (The Defense Threat Reduction Agency) on introduction of intervention epidemiology in Ukraine, the concept of “One Health”, etc. Head of the department prof. T.O. Chumachenko is involved as an expert in the implementation of the European Union Horizon 2020 scientific project “MOOD” (Monitoring Outbreaks for Disease surveillance in a data science context).
Department concluded agreements with the Public Health Agency of Sweden, Respublikines Vilniaus universitetines ligonines; Sfanta treime municipal clinical hospital Chisanau, Republic of Moldova.
The faculty members of the Department in 2021 received 7 grants from the WHO and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA, USA) for participation in annual scientific symposia and international scientific forums, for training of trainers of mobile teams for vaccination against COVID-19; completed an internship at the National Health Insurance Service (Korea) and other institutions.
The results of scientific research of the Epidemiology Department were presented at numerous international scientific forums in the USA, Sweden, Austria, France, Italy, Belgium, Greece, Denmark, Finland, Turkey, Poland, the Republic of Lithuania, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine and others.

Head of the department prof. T.O. Chumachenko is a reviewer of scientific articles in leading scientific journals with a high impact factor of science-metric databases Scopus, Web of Science, such as “Globalization and Health”, “Frontiers in Public Health”, “Epidemioligia”, “Infectious Disease Reports” , “Medicina”, “Healthcare”, “Vaccines”, “International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health” and others. In 2023 alone, she prepared 43 reviews of 34 manuscripts of articles.

The department trains medical interns in the specialty “Epidemiology”. The course “Clinical Epidemiology” is taught for interns specializing in “Infectious Diseases” as an adjacent cycle, and the course “Modern Aspects of Bacterial and Viral Infections” is taught as an adjacent cycle for interns specializing in “Clinical Laboratory Diagnostics”

For doctors of health care institutions, 3-month and 5-month cycles of secondary specialization in the specialty “Epidemiology”, a cycle of specialization and internship in the specialty “Epidemiology”, thematic improvement courses on current problems of epidemiology and prevention of pathological conditions of man and preservation of public health – “Epidemiology and prevention of Health Care infections “, “Epidemiological studies in clinical and preventive medicine. Basics of evidence-based medicine”, “Selected issues of respiratory tract epidemiology. COVID-19 – modern challenges”, “Current issues of epidemiology and prevention of modern infections in conditions of war and liquidation of its consequences”, etc.

Course topics are constantly updated in accordance with new challenges in the field of public health, achievements of epidemiological science and orders of practical health care institutions.