About

Prevention plays a key role in addressing global health challenges such as the control of pandemics, the rising tide of non-communicable diseases, and the spread of violence and injuries. In order to be effective, preventive strategies need to include underlying causes of avoidable morbidity and mortality by promoting polices that foster a healthy environment, healthy life styles and equitable access to health care and information. So far, the global health debate has not paid the due attention to the potential of prevention and health promotion. Thus, new strategies of preventive medicine are necessary to meet the requests towards sustainable global health.

Participants at the 2nd International Conference & Exhibition Towards Sustainable Global Health – on Global Health & Preventive Medicine and the First German Health Forum, taking place at the Heidelberg Congress Center, on 14-16 + 17 June 2011 will be sharing knowledge and insights for working on a holistic strategy for effectively promoting and establishing a shift of paradigms from a mere repair approach towards prevention and health promotion.

Key issues in this context are:

   * Self-empowerment, lifestyle / life care and education for good health and life long well-being
   * How to best promote health by addressing the leading global risk factors
   * Partnerships for health across disciplines, institutions and traditional policy areas
   * Alternative intercultural preventative medical approaches, to focus on the use of different cultural backgrounds
   * Good governance, policy relevance, and corporate social responsibility

Empowerment for healthy life styles, safe environment, early warning systems, and intercultural preventive medical approaches are able to support and enhance the Millennium Development Goals and the UN-Decade “Education for Sustainable Development“, with regard to sustainable global health. The organizers believe that it is only through collective multilevel efforts that this shift can be achieved for the sake of human wellbeing, equity, livelihood, and worldwide sustainable development and stability.

Background

In May of 2007, the first in a series of International Conferences and Exhibitions under the title “Towards Sustainable Global Health” was convened in Bonn, Germany. The organizing partners, including various UN agencies, Universities, NGOs, and Gemini AG, succeeded in articulating the Bonn Call for Action and Awareness on Promoting Sustainable Global Health. This important statement, produced and signed by a multi-disciplinary, multi-national group of participants of the conference, clearly urges action on a variety of health-related issues as pre-requisite for achieving the Millennium Development Goals and a vital foundation for personal, societal and economic well-being.

In continuation of the first conference and the Call for Action, Gemini AG and a new array of partners, including UN agencies, universities, and civil organizations have now organized the first follow-up conference focused on Early Diagnosis and Preventive Medicine for Sustainable Global Health. This conference also responds to the Tallinn Charter “Health Systems for Health and Wealth” resulting from the WHO European Ministerial Conference on Health Systems, convened on 25-27 June 2008, in Tallinn, Estonia, and the European Pact for Mental Health and Well-being, launched on 13 June 2008 in Brussels, Belgium.