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Dean's Message
Welcome to the website of the Faculty of Health Sciences
(FHS) at the American University of Beirut where you will find
the information you need whether you are
considering a career in public health or health sciences or
simply interested in learning more about our programs, research,
and outreach activities.
In its global report in 2006 on Human Resources for Health, the
World Health Organization (WHO) warned of deficiencies in the
number and quality of health professionals in the developing world
and of the brain drain from developing countries to the
industrialized, economically more developed world. The report also
noted the migration of health professionals from rural to urban areas
and in the Arab region to the rich oil-producing countries.
Access to health services and education has improved in our region and
many Arab countries have recently reported acceptable to good health
indicators. Nonetheless, this region suffers from multiple divides:
between the rich and the poor divide (the haves and have-nots) within and among Arab countries,
the social and cultural divide, and the political divide. Our region also
suffers from more than its fair share of war, conflict, and instability.
We are therefore in real need of well-trained professionals in public health
and would greatly benefit from the production and dissemination of new knowledge
and scientific evidence to guide policy decisions on health care
issues.
FHS, established in 1954 as the first school of public health in the Arab world,
is committed to excellence in instruction and research and to an active outreach
and practice program. Our Graduate Public Health Program (Master of Public Health
and Master of Science in Epidemiology, Population Health, and Environmental Health)
is accredited by the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH) in the
United States. Our research activities, which cover a wide range
of current health issues in Lebanon and the region, are mostly community-based and participatory ensuring a close connection
between the production of knowledge and intervention and policy change. Our students,
working alongside their professors, are actively involved in faculty-wide or student-initiated
community-based projects on a voluntary basis or as part of their practical training
and course projects.
Our faculty believes that the key to greater success and continuous growth and
long-term impact
is not to compartmentalize our programs into the three primary functions of
instruction, research, and outreach/practice but rather to look at it as a whole,
as a unified living organism. I like to think of this faculty as a tree.
Trees are living organisms. When we talk about them, we consider fertile soils,
irrigation, and nutrients. We think of seeds as they grow and blossom into leaves,
and fruits. This requires care, cooperation, and cultivation, and is
affected by external elements. Visualizing our faculty this way
forces us to do away with the artificial division between instruction, research, and outreach. The seed is our
commitment to health as a basic human right and our understanding of our role
as educators and researchers in health; the soil is that healthy space and
environment that allows this seed to grow and produce fruits, which are our
students, graduates, and research output. The tree is the result. But the
tree is only useful for those surrounding it if they can share
its fruit and enjoy its shade. I believe this to be the “passion and spirit” of FHS.
Iman Nuwayhid, MD, DrPH
Dean, Faculty of Health Sciences, AUB
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