On September 16th, Wemos and our partners in the project Action for Health and Equity: Addressing medical Deserts (AHEAD) organised a webinar about the different manifestations – or ‘faces’ – of medical deserts in Italy, Moldova, the Netherlands, Romania and Serbia. The recording of our webinar is now available on our YouTube channel.

We shared the key findings of our country research on medical deserts in Italy, Moldova, the Netherlands, Romania and Serbia with the audience. For example, we found several common ‘root causes’ of medical desertification in the abovementioned countries: increased health care need among the population and a low number of health workers. In addition, we also found common ‘themes’, based on the interviews we held with stakeholders in the said countries: low familiarity with the term ‘medical deserts’, and insufficient mitigation, solutions and strategies on the national and local level (i.e. no clear ownership of the problem or solution).

It was an interactive webinar, during which there was room for questions from the audience. Stefan Mandic-Rajcevic, data research analyst at the University of Belgrade and one of our AHEAD team members in Serbia, was our moderator. Our speakers were:

• Keynote speech (by Katarzyna Ptak Bufkens – Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety, European Commission)
• Medical deserts: definition and methodology (by Dana Farcasanu –Center for Health Policies and Services)
• Country findings: Italy, Moldova, Serbia, Romania, the Netherlands (by Aysel Rahimli – Wemos)

Upcoming AHEAD webinar on September 16: what are medical deserts and how do we find them?

What are the different manifestations – or ‘faces’ – of medical deserts in Europe? During an interactive webinar on September 16th – with a keynote speech from Katarzyna Ptak-Bufkens of the Directorate-General for Heath and Food Safety (European Commission) – Wemos and our partners in the project Action for Health and Equity: Addressing medical Deserts (AHEAD) will dive into this question. We will share key takeaways from our country reports on medical deserts in the countries on which AHEAD focuses: Italy, Moldova, the Netherlands, Romania and Serbia.

Aysel Rahimli, project coordinator of the AHEAD project at Wemos, will present our country report findings. Dana Farcasanu, Executive President of the Center for Health Policies and Services, will present our research and methodology. Stefan Mandic-Rajcevic, data research analyst at the University of Belgrade and part of the AHEAD team in Serbia, will moderate the webinar.

“It was fascinating to compares notes after the country teams had concluded their research,” says Corinne Hinlopen (AHEAD programme officer at Wemos) about the country reports. “For instance, we found that respondents in regions where the situation had already improved did not consider themselves medical deserts anymore, even though quantitative indicators were still below standard. Also, we discovered that there is a lot of confusion and unclarity about which institutions can be held accountable for which specific policy decisions that could help solve medical deserts.”

Medical deserts are areas with a low concentration of health services that result in unmet medical needs and increasing health inequalities. With the AHEAD project, we aim to reduce health inequalities by addressing the challenge of medical deserts and medical desertification in Europe. The team behind the project consists of the Center for Health Policies and Services (Romania), Cittadinanza Attiva (Italy), Media Education Centre (Serbia), National School for Public Health Management (Moldova), Wemos (Netherlands), and VU Athena (Netherlands). 

Join our webinar on September 16th, during which we will:

1. Show the different manifestations (‘faces’) of medical deserts in Italy, Moldova, the Netherlands, Romania and Serbia.
   2. Share the key findings of our country reports on medical deserts in the abovementioned countries.

Date: Friday September 16th, 2022
Time: 10:30 – 11:30AM (CET)
Language: English
Registration: Zoom