Hundreds of people involved in public health across the island of Ireland will gather today for a summit in Belfast to examine how new technology and methods can be used in supporting people to live healthier lives.
Organisers say the summit will feature new technology and interventions being used to assist policymakers to design healthy cities, promote physical activity and work together across the broad field of public health.
Professor Frank Kee, Director of the Centre for Public Health at QUB said that “there is a need to innovate and really change the way people think about their health. Our opportunities for better health are affected by where we live, learn, work and play. Medical care is critical, but it is not enough to make people healthy. We need to address the root causes of ill health.”
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The keynote speakers at today’s conference include Dr Wendy Hardeman from the University of East Anglia, who will present on mobile health interventions to promote physical activity. Professor Laurence Moore from the University of Glasgow will discuss moving towards a complex systems approach to population health research and Dr Marguerite Nyhan from University College Cork will show how using urban analytics and new technology can help in designing healthy, sustainable and liveable cities for the future.
The conference will also feature new research and programmes covering a range of topics, including tobacco, alcohol, ageing, mental health, nutrition, loneliness, physical activity and sexual health.
The Annual Joint Public Health Conference 2019 is being hosted by the Centre for Public Health at Queen’s University Belfast (QUB), in partnership with the Institute of Public Health in Ireland, Department of Health (NI), Public Health Agency, Health Service Executive (Ireland), and the School of Public Health from the University College Cork.
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A full conference programme is available at https://research.hscni.net/joint-public-health-annual-conference-2019-innovation-public-health
