Introduction

    It has been almost 51 years since the establishment of the Taiwan Public Health Association (originally the National Public Health Association Republic of China in December 2000) on November 19th, 1972. Through participation in the Association, experts and practitioners from different fields including health policy, healthcare management, epidemiology, preventive medicine, environmental health, occupational health, behavioral sciences, sociology and biostatistics join forces to promote professionalism in public health and to improve health quality for all. Currently, there are 180 groups and more than 1,400 individuals registered as members of the Association. Group members include public health bureaus, health centers, and healthcare facilities; individual members include faculty and students in related college departments and practitioners in public health, healthcare facilities, and civil groups. The Taiwan Journal of Public Health, the periodical published by the Association, has been highly praised. 

History

    After the inauguration of the Department of Health ROC  in 1971 and the first college department of public health in 1972, Prof. Chen Kung- Pei at  National Taiwan University realized the need for a new platform to promote quality research, To share the latest information, to strengthen friendships and to encourage international communication. He advocated for the establishment of a public health association. In the summer of 1972, the first planning meeting for the “Taipei Pilot Center for Public Health Education” was held. On November 19th of that year, the “National Public Health Association, Republic of China” was founded, and Mr. Yen Chun-Hui, Minister of Health at that time, was elected to be the first President.

    In the early 1980s, with the suggestion of Mr. Chao Shiu-Hsiung, another meeting was organized by Profs. Wu Hsin-Ying and Yang Chih-Liang. The meeting was successful and led to the election of Prof. Wu as President. Since then, the Association has held regular annual meetings and elected directors and supervisors every three years. On October 7th, 2000, the Association officially implemented its current name, the “Taiwan Public Health Association,” in order to facilitate participation in the international community as an academic body.

    With the maturation of the Association, Prof. Yang Chih-Liang made great effort to the birth of  the Journal of National Public Health Association Republic of China (renamed to the Taiwan Journal of Public Health in 2001). Since its first release on December 15th, 1982, every issue of the Journal has received abundant submissions and positive feedback from those engaged in various fields of study. In 2005, the Social Sciences Research Center of the National Science Council included the Taiwan Journal of Public Health in the Taiwan Social Science Citation Index (TSSCI) database, Scopus, ProQuest and EBSCOhost.

The aims of the Association are to combine the professional forces  in public health in order to promote research quality, to share the latest information, strengthen friendships, and to encourage international communication.

Mission

The Association’s mission is to:

I. Promote research and provide suggestions in public health and related fields.

II. Publish correspondence and the academic journal of the Association. (Taiwan Journal Publish Health)

III. Organize annual meetings and academic conferences.

IV. Promote communication and cooperation with international public health groups.

V. Promote communication and other activities among members.

VI. Engage in other public health issues.( promoting the legislation of the "Taiwan Public Health Professional Act", and establish "Taiwan Certified in Public Health").

VII. Hold "Basic Level in Public Health Core Competency Examination (BPHCE)" in September every year.

Logo

    The Taiwan Public Health Association is an academic organization (the tree is symbolic of the community) that focuses on the advancement of health quality (the letter H at the center represents health) and is strengthened by multidisciplinary expertise (the circles on the left, right, and middle represent different fields of study). Through participation in the Association (the Association’s name in both Chinese and English represents members from different backgrounds), members are able to work in synergy (all figures and text surrounding the center) and to advance the field of public health (represented by the thriving, blossoming tree).

Members

Those who are willing to support the objectives of the association and are qualified by any of the categories list below are encouraged to join as members. Each new member has to be introduced by 2 current members, fill out an application form, and to be approved by the council with the payment of the required joining fee.