Social Medicine
The World Health Organization has defined public health as 'all organized measures (whether public or private) to prevent disease, promote health, and prolong life among the population as a whole.
Main content
The teaching group is associated with the subject area SAMLET. In Norway, it is common to translate public health as social medicine, although community medicine might be a more accurate translation. While clinical medicine is primarily individual-oriented, social medicine is aimed at groups of individuals or the entire population.
The teaching in social medicine includes occupational medicine, preventive medicine, medical history, community medicine, social medicine, social security medicine, and related areas such as health management and health economics, quality development, health policy, collaboration, international health, social inequality, and the prioritization of health services and offerings.
About the Subject Group:
The subject group consists of permanent staff, PhD candidates, and post-doc employees. These cover the full range of teaching tasks assigned to this subject group.
Teaching groups goals:
The goal of the teaching is to show students the importance of:
- Preventing disease and injuries and avoiding the worsening of established diseases
- Promoting a healthy lifestyle and good health habits
- Identifying, measuring, recording, and describing necessary measures that can improve the population's health (e.g., through health registries)
- Identifying, diagnosing, and if possible, reducing physical and psychosocial health problems in the environment
- Formulating, promoting, and enforcing important health policy measures
- Organizing and ensuring a cost-effective public health system and high-quality health services
- Reducing health inequalities and ensuring fair access to healthcare for all
- Promoting and protecting a healthy environment both in the workplace and in society at large
- Disseminating health information and ensuring necessary health-promoting measures are implemented
- Preparing contingency plans for major accidents and disasters
- Counteracting violent behavior in society and between individuals and working for peacekeeping measures
- Understanding the current healthcare system and the role of healthcare in society in a historical context
