Public Health in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Pre-training requirements
The candidates to the residency program have to be medical doctors, who passed a national exam with respective ministry. Placements are allocated by individual health facilities and confirmed by one of the respective ministries of health. Graduates of dental medicine are allowed to specialize social medicine (with organization and health economics) in Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Duration of training
Duration of epidemiology residency is 3 years. Duration of hygiene (with medical ecology) residency is 3 years (Federation of BiH) or 4 years (Republic of Srpska). Duration of social medicine (with organization and health economics) residency is 4 years (Federation of BiH) or 3 years (Republic of Srpska).

Mandatory educational requirements
Theoretical education is integral part of every residency program. It is conducted by one of the medical faculties, in charge with overall residencies. Duration of theoretical education varies between different parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina and different residencies (3-12 months).

Mandatory training requirements
Rotations for epidemiology (27-29 months) residency include epidemiology, microbiology, hygiene, social medicine, infectious diseases and medical informatics with statistics (additionally: internal medicine, neurology, psychiatry, pediatrics, oncology and transfusiology  in Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina)

Rotations for hygiene (30 months) residency include hygiene (communal hygiene, nutrition, school, work environment, air, water, sport, health facilities), social medicine and epidemiology.

Rotations for social medicine (27-30 months) residency include social medicine, epidemiology, hygiene and medical informatics with statistics (additionally: medical ecology, health economics, organization and management of health system in Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina).

End of training assessment method
The residency program completes with an oral exam and the defense and discussion of a specialty thesis, after which a resident becomes a specialist of epidemiology, hygiene (with medical ecology) or social medicine (with organization and health economics).

The specialists usually work in the public health institutes or primary healthcare centers which initially allocated the residency. The specialists can also be employed by the ministries of health or universities. The hygiene specialists can take further sub-specialization in school hygiene/medicine, radiological safety, medical ecology, medical informatics, nutrition with dietetics, epidemiology of non-communicable diseases, epidemiology of communicable diseases or health promotion.  The social medicine specialists can take further sub-specialization in health promotion, health economics, health management, epidemiology of non-communicable diseases, epidemiology of communicable diseases or medical informatics. The epidemiology specialists can take further sub-specialization in radiological safety, medical ecology, medical informatics, epidemiology of non-communicable diseases, epidemiology of communicable diseases or health promotion.