Past webinars

When they first move away from the family home to discover the new world of work or higher education, a troubling proportion of young people experience some degree of loneliness. Can a better understanding of culture help institutions, families and young people find a solution that works for them?

In a world burdened by inequality, poverty, and climate change, one generation created the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) while another will try to live them out. What matters has changed. With animal extinction, mass flooding, and severe droughts happening around the world, existential fear around survival is causing serious climate change anxiety. Generational gaps, ever-evolving technologies, and cultural variances have brought new views on work-life balance, consumerism, sustainability and ethical choices. How will this shift in thinking and culture affect the health and well-being of a generation?

The act of giving birth transcends cultures, yet the experience of childbirth differs vastly from place to place. From hospital births to home births, from doctors to doulas, the practices and values around childbirth are varied and continue to evolve. This seminar explores different views on issues such as childbirth pain, breastfeeding, diet and prenatal and postpartum care across the WHO European Region.

Digital health advances are revolutionizing how health care is practised and received, but this is happening at varying rates in different ways across populations. Digital health – or simply the technology used in health care – ranges from mobile apps, robotic care and doctor video-calling to electronic records. In some cases, digital health innovation has increased access to and productivity of health services; in others, however, it has created inequalities. This session investigated the factors behind these disparities and considered how an awareness of cultural perspectives could help to inform answers and identify solutions. It examined the impact of culture on digital health design, implementation and acceptance. Understanding this relationship and the fast-paced changes in digital health can improve the quality of health care and promote ways to address existing health inequalities.

The recent Lancet Commission on Malaria Eradication has claimed that it is possible to eliminate malaria by 2050. This seminar discusses this claim by focusing on the historical trajectory of artemisinin. The establishment of the antimalarial activity of artemisinin was one of the great medical achievements of the latter part of the twentieth century. Today researchers are still looking for other uses of this drug class. To what extent is the effectiveness of this drug being impaired by growing drug resistance? And what does artemisinin tell us about the prospects of malaria eradication?

Countries around the world are beginning to set budgets and develop policies to improve well-being. How does culture affect well-being? From the role of culture in well-being indicators to deep grassroots engagement with well-being in cities across Europe, this seminar explores the role of culture in defining, measuring and advancing well-being.

Can a better understanding of the cultural and social contexts help us to address old and new challenges for controlling tobacco? What actions should be taken to empower governments and their citizens to address these challenges and continue striving for better health and greater equity?

Digital health advances are revolutionising how we practice and receive healthcare, but have a different effect on different parts of the population. Do digital solutions help promote health equity or are they creating new inequities? If so, what are the factors behind these disparities and how can cultural perspectives help us to reduce them?

The use of complementary and alternative medicines like acupuncture and chiropractic treatment is growing rapidly. However, there are still many obstacles to their integration into standard health services. What role do cultural differences, prejudices, and the history of medicine play in these practices and their acceptance? And how do we draw the line between what works and what doesn't?

In December 1979, an independent, international committee declared the world free of smallpox; an achievement many had considered impossible. This webinar will involve former smallpox eradicators and historians to present a multi- faceted and nuanced view of smallpox eradication, and the socio-cultural contexts that made the eradication dream a reality.

End of life care aims to help people live and die with dignity. Cultural norms, beliefs and expectations heavily influence how this can be achieved and what constitutes a 'good death.’ This webinar investigates the diverse relationships that exist between cultural contexts and palliative care practices.

Masculinities, socially constructed ideas of what it is to be a man, are described as barriers to men seeking mental health support and also impact upon women in a variety of ways. This webinar investigates the relationships between culturally influenced notions of ‘masculinity’, men’s mental health help-seeking behaviors and gender equality.

Migration flows constitute a defining element of our time, with a consistent rise in the number of migrants and refugees in the WHO European Region. International migrants now form 10% of the Region’s population, 90.7 million people. This increase in the number of refugees and migrants has gone hand in hand with an increase in the number of cultural mediators, in some countries.

With the popularity of cycling soaring across Europe, many countries see cycling as a way to promote well-being and reduce environmental pollution. But there are varying cultural debates around whether cyclists should be made to wear helmets. This webinar draws together figures from medicine, academia, and cycling activism to discuss whether helmets should be made compulsory.

Featuring a range of speakers from academia, policymaking, health services, and activist organizations, the webinar will explore the implications of this change for the support available for individuals undergoing gender identity transition, taking into consideration differences across time and cultural contexts.

Individual and community cultural attitudes towards waste determine what we consume, how we consume it and how we dispose of the waste generated. This webinar investigates the relationships between culture in different contexts, waste management practices and related health outcomes.

Air pollution is a global problem that contributes to chronic illness and mortality. This webinar will examine the cultural drivers of increased air pollution, and state and community-based responses to the problem. 6/3/2019

This webinar investigates the cultural factors that shape antibiotic use and helps in understanding the transmission of antibiotic resistance, such as the way culture shapes the protocols defining how antibiotic resistance is researched and regulated.

If medicine is an art, can art be a medicine? In this seminar, 3 international experts discuss the health effects of cultural participation and the potential of using arts and culture to improve health and well-being.

In this seminar, an expert panel consider the priorities, strategies and tests facing the accelerated tobacco control programme in Sri Lanka, including the largely neglected health threat of smokeless tobacco products.

This seminar traces the interconnections between health reforms aimed at providing universal health coverage and Sri Lanka’s role in expanding the United Nations and WHO.

In today’s world, an enormous amount of information about our life (and death) is being recorded as data. This seminar explores the cultural contexts of data and the powerful potential for (and possible pitfalls of) ruling the world by numbers.

To understand the complexity of mosquito control it is necessary to contrast past and contemporary processes, achievements and challenges.

In this seminar, 3 international experts discuss the complex interplay between food, nutrition, culture and society.