Ladies and Gentlemen, dear visitors!

In the name of the Organizing Committee,  we would like to invite you to attend the 2nd International Scientific Conference - “Health Inequalities in urban and rural areas” which will be held from 24th to April 26th 2009 in Lodz, Poland.

The session entitled: “Media and Health”, specially prepared for media representatives,  will be a part of the conference. In the first edition of the Conference - a similar session attracted great interest of the media environment and was also an opportunity to a number of extremely interesting discussions.

The conference is organized by the Higher School of Business Administration and Health Sciences in Lodz and the Institute of Agricultural Medicine in Lublin.

The event will be held under the auspices of Waldemar Pawlak - Vice Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland, Chairman of Polish People’s Party (PSL), Włodzimierz Fisiak - Marshal of the Lodz Voivodship, Jerzy Kropiwnicki - Mayor of Lodz, Sylwester Rypiński - President of Polish Social Insurance Institution and Henryk Smolarz - President of Agricultural Social Insurance Fund.

The aim of our conference is to provide in-depth and up-to-date knowledge of health-related needs as well as the quality  and access to medical services in urban and rural areas.

Nowadays one of the most crucial issues in public health all over the world is the  decrease of social and territorial disparities in health of the population. In Poland this issue has been addressed as the eighth strategic priority  in the current edition of the National Health Program 2007-2015. The conference, thought-out as a cyclical event, held every year in Lodz, makes an effort to meet these needs. The invited experts will discuss methods of eliminating existing health inequalities. In addition to the scientific programme, we would like to invite you to take a virtual tour through time to trace back the origins of public healthcare in industrial Lodz.

                                                                                         I sincerely invite you.

                                                                                    Chairman of the committee

                                                                                        dr Paweł Skoczylas, MD

Honorary Patronage

Honorary Committee

Vicemarshal of the Sejm
Jarosław Kalinowski

Deputy to the Sejm of the VI term
Bronisław Dutka

Deputy to the Sejm of the VI term
Mieczysław Łuczak

Deputy to the Sejm of the VI term
Andrzej Pałys

Deputy to the Sejm of the VI term
Józef Racki

Deputy to the Sejm of the VI term
Aleksander Sopliński

Deputy to the Sejmo of the VI term
Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development
Marek Sawicki

Secretary of state in The Chancellery of The Prime Minister
Deputy to the Sejm of the VI term
Eugeniusz Grzeszczak

Subsecretary of state in the Ministry of Health
Adam Fronczak MD, PhD

The Deputy Voivode of Łódź

Krystyna Ozga

President of Regional Chambers of Physicians and Dentists
Grzegorz Krzyżanowski MD, Phd

Jerzy Maciak

Voluntary Labor Corps
Jerzy Mormul

Rector of the Higher School of Business Administration and Health Sciences
prof. Marian Szpakowski PhD habilitated 

Organizers

Higher School of Business Administration and Health Sciences

Polish Society of Social Medicine and Public Health

Institute of Agricultural Medicine in Lublin

Scientific committee

prof. Leszek Wdowiak MD, PhD habilitated
National health consultant
Chairman

prof. Andrji Bazilivich MD, PhD habilitated
Vice Chairman

prof.  Wojciech Gaszyński MD, PhD habilitated

prof.  Andrzej Kaszuba MD, PhD habilitated

prof. Jerzy Marcinkowski MD, PhD habilitated

prof. Alfred Owoc MD, PhD habilitated

prof.  Franciszek Seneczko MD, PhD habilitated

Włodzimierz Stelmach MD, PhD habilitated

prof. Zygmunt Stęplewski MD, PhD habilitated

prof.  Marian Sygit MD, PhD habilitated

Organizing Committee

Paweł Skoczylas MD, PhD
Chairman

Michał R. Żebrowski MD, PhD
Vice Chairman

Tomasz Lenkowski PhD
Secretary

Dariusz Klimczak

Polish Rural Youth Organization
Michał Modrzejewski

Agnieszka Chełminiak

Anna Drobnik

Małgorzata Pijanowska

Maciej Słowikowski

Scientific Committee invites you to submit abstracts of papers for presentations in following thematic sessions:

Session 1: Quality of medical services in rural areas
Session 2: Access to  medical services in rural and urban areas
Session 3: Social and environmental conditionality of diseases
Session 4: The health of children and teenagers in urban and rural areas
Session 5: The role of medical rescue in the system of health care in rural and urban areas

All submitted papers will be assessed for compliance with the criteria for scientific evaluation. These papers will be published in:

• The Polish Journal of Public Health
• General Medicine
• Problems of Sanitation and Epidemiology

Authors are requested to submit abstracts along with a full paper until 31.03.2009, to the following e-mail address:

We kindly request you to prepare your abstracts according to following criteria:
Abstracts must be prepared in Polish and English version (Microsoft Word editor, A4 format, Times New Roman 12 p. font type, single span between lines, margins: left  – 3,5 cm, right – 2,5 cm) should contain up to 250 words. Abstracts must contain author’ s full name, title, name of an institute and a  department, keywords and paper content. Abstracts should include the following sections: introduction, aim, research material and methods, results, conclusions.  Keywords (in Polish and English) - not more than 7 words.

NOTIFICATION FORM

Please fill in this form and return it with the payment confirmation (120€) to Maciej Słowikowski from the Organizing Committee: Fax: +48 042 683 44 22, E-mail: