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Association of Public Health Specialists

Association of Public Health Specialists (Halk Sağlığı Uzmanları Derneği a.k.a. HASUDER) is an association for public health professionals in Turkey. The association has been active in the field of public health in Turkey since 1995.

The aims of the association are to improve public health and protect the rights of our members of public health specialists in Turkey. There are three types of membership according to our charter:

1. Public health specialists who are graduates of medical schools (MD) as principal members.
2. Physicians (MD) who hold a PhD degree in public health as principal members.
3. People who had a Phd degree in Public Health and has a background in other disciplines (nursery, dietetics etc) as honorary members.

We have been publishing the Turkish Journal of Public Health since 2004 as bilingual (Turkish and English). Our journal publishes research in the field of public health as well as international researchers’ papers. The journal is indexed in the Directory of Open Access Journals, EBSCO, Proquest and in our national index (TÜBİTAK TR Dizin). We also have another bulletin which is titled Public Health and Social Sciences (SOSA) in Turkish. This bulletin is aimed to be a bridge between public health and social science researchers in Turkey.

We conduct a yearly scientific congress. In 2021 we did our 23rd National Public Health Congress with the theme “The Priorities of the Changing World: Climate Crisis, Disasters, Migration, Inequalities and Community Resilience”. We had over one thousand participants, 51 sessions (panel discussions, conferences, round table meetings, forum, experience sharing), and 47 oral presentation sessions. In total there were 131 speakers including 21 international speakers. There were 128 participants for seven different courses which are conducted by 43 course faculty. We are now working hard on our congress in December 2022 with the theme “Health in the Shadow of War and Violence”.

We also organize joint studies by establishing relations with other national and international medical and non-medical professional organizations. We are working on the development of public health master's, speciality and doctoral programs. We organize events on public health syllabus and training for medical students.

We prepare informative press releases and reports for the public and professionals. We try to establish a public health point of view regarding the problems in our country and in the world. We take part in advisory boards when required. We work together with both governmental and non-governmental organizations to protect public health and increase public awareness.

In conclusion, at the national level, we are the leading professional association where public health professionals meet in Turkey.