There is a new public health consultant

Lukasz Balicki, M.D., has become the new national consultant in public health, replacing Prof. Jaroslaw Pinkas, who has held the position since 2018.

Lukasz Balicki, MD, is head of the Department of Public Health and Social Medicine at the Medical University of Gdansk. He served as deputy director of the Department of Social Development for Public Health at the City Hall in Gdansk. He currently collaborates as an expert with WHO, The European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies and the National Institute of Public Health - PZH. He is a member of the Public Health Committee of the Polish Academy of Sciences and a provincial consultant in public health. He is the author of numerous scientific publications on epidemiology, especially in the context of tobacco control (tobacco control).

For more than a decade, he has headed the University's Tobacco Control Clinic, where he supports patients in their fight against addiction.

National consultants are appointed by the Minister of Health from among specialists in particular fields:

• Medicine,
• pharmacy,
• Other fields that are applicable to health care.

The minister may ask for candidates:

• scientific societies of national scope that bring together specialists in a particular field,
• The relevant health professional governments.

National consultants:

• initiate national epidemiological studies and evaluate the methods and results of these studies;
• forecast health needs in their field;
• advise on how to implement tasks that stem from the National Health Program and other health programs;
• Give their opinion on requests to refer a patient for treatment or diagnostic tests outside Poland;
• give opinions and advice on tasks carried out by the Center for Medical Examinations, the Center for Postgraduate Training of Nurses and Midwives and the Center for Medical Postgraduate Training.

Source: MZ/Gdansk Medical University