The history of the Department of Public Health and Healthcare Management begins with the creation of the first department of social hygiene in Ukraine at the Kharkov Medical Institute. The founder of the department was the People’s Commissar of Health of the USSR Musiy Grigorievich Gurevich, who headed the department from October 27, 1923 until the spring of 1925. On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the first in Ukraine department of social hygiene of the Kharkov Medical Institute of the People’s Commissariat of Health of the Ukrainian SSR, he noted the outstanding role of N.G. Gurevich as the organizer of the department, which “laid the foundation for the further development of social hygiene as a science and subject of teaching in Ukraine”.
Sergei Arkadevich Tomilin (1877-1952), who headed the department in 1925-1932, made a great contribution to the development of social hygiene problems. He is the author of over 100 scientific papers, including 17 monographs.
S.A. Tomilin created a school of social medics in Kharkov. Under his leadership, they grew up in famous scientists, became professors (I.A. Arnoldi, S.A. Gurevich, A.N. Merkov, F.I. Groysser, P.T. Petrov, I.I. Ovsienko, K.F. Duplenko and others).
In 1933, the department of social hygiene of the KhMI was headed by Zinovy Anatolyevich Gurevich (1898-1985). He gave 50 years of his life to the department, of which 41 years he headed it.
S.A. Gurevich is the author of 100 publications, including 14 monographs and brochures.
Throughout his career, he paid great attention to the training of scientific and pedagogical personnel. Employees, postgraduates, and practical health workers were involved in the work on dissertations. Under the leadership of S.A. Gurevich, 5 doctoral dissertations and 28 candidate dissertations were prepared and defended.
The department constantly paid attention to improving the educational process. In the 1930s, the scientists of the department prepared the first Ukrainian textbooks on social hygiene. Published “Essays on the theory of social hygiene” S.S. Kagan (1932), “Social hygiene” (lectures 1-8) S.A. Tomilin and A.M. Merkov (1933), “General theory of sanitary statistics” A.M. Merkov (11935), “Workshop on sanitary statistics” L.A. Abramovich, N.I. Kaminsky, P.T. Petrov (1940).
From August 3, 1974 to 2002, the Department was headed by Professor Nina Aleksandrovna Galichev (1931–2017). Cardiovascular issues remained the main direction of the department’s scientific activity. This topic was devoted to the doctoral dissertation of N.A. Galichev “Myocardial infarction and its prevention as a social and hygienic problem”. The work was a multifaceted study with the study of the prevalence of myocardial infarction in Kharkov over 25 years of risk factors; traced the fate of patients with myocardial infarction, studied the provision of medical care to these patients in a big city, and the like.
Since February 2002, the department has been headed by Professor Viktor Andreevich Ognev, who continues to lead it today.
Since 1997 up to the present time Ognev V.A. heads the National Coordination Center of the international program “ISAAC” for the study of bronchial asthma in children. According to this program, the doctoral dissertation “Medical and social problems of allergic diseases in children” was carried out. Methods for identifying symptoms of bronchial asthma and studying the quality of life of children with this pathology have been developed and patented. V.A.Ognev scientifically substantiated anamnestic epidemiological methods for studying morbidity, predicting the risk of pathology in children, developed the first domestic methods for assessing the quality of life of the population, and proposed systems for monitoring and managing diseases.
V.A. Ognev is a full member and vice-president of the Ukrainian Academy of the History of Medicine; a member of the Dissertation Council D 64.600.06, Kharkiv National Medical University; a member of the scientific and methodological commission on health and social security (subcommittee: 229 – Public health) of the higher education sector of the Scientific and Methodological Council of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine (2019 and until now) a member of the working group on the development of goals and content of the STEP 2 integrated test exam for specialty 229 “Public health” of the state organization “Center for Testing the Professional Competence of Specialists with Higher Education “Medicine” and “Pharmacy” at the Ministry of Health of Ukraine (from 2020 to the present),as a freelance expert of the National Health Service of Ukraine in 2020 in the direction of Inpatient care for adults and children without surgical operations (from 2020 to the present) by the chairman of the expert council of the regional competition of scientific works presented for the title of “Best young scientist of the Kharkiv region” in the nomination “Life science, new technologies for the prevention and treatment of the most common diseases” (from 2017 and still), Chairman of the Council of the Methodological Office of the Educational and Scientific Institute for the Quality of Education of KhNMU (from 2013 to the present); Chairman of the Methodological Commission on the Problems of Professional Training of the Medical and Preventive Profile (from 2010 to the present).
