The work of the Group started with the 1st International Public Health Seminar (IPHS) 1957 at the Hospital Cantonal, Geneva, with 62 participants from 27 countries. The seminar was initiated to respond to the need for an international forum to share information and exchange ideas on how best to improve the planning and design of healthcare projects.

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Since its foundation, a decisive factor in the work of the Group has been the continuous dialogue and close collaboration with the leading international associations representing health and hospital care organisations.

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From its inception, the Public Health Group has collaborated with the International Hospital Federation at the International Hospital Congresses and the IHF-Pan Regional Congresses. One of the benefits of this relationship was the opportunity for members of the UIA PHG to participate in the study tours of hospitals organised by the International Hospital Federation.

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Following the International Public Health Seminar in 1966, a secretariat for the UIA Public Health Group was established in Athens, Greece with T. Papayannis as its Secretary.

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In 1971 the UIA-Section Federal Republic of Germany, Bund Deutscher Architekten (BDA), Bonn, took charge of the Public Health Group.  Richard Joachim Sahl, Architect BDAao, was elected its Secretary. During this period, the secretariat of the Public Health Group was located at Deutsches Krankenhausinstitut in Düsseldorf.

In 1990, the UIA-PHG organized its first Exchange Study Tours: one tour for the German, Dutch and Swiss colleagues going to Kiew - Moscow - Zagorsk - St. Petersburg, and one tour for the Russian and Ukrainian colleagues going through Germany - Belgium - Switzerland and Austria. These continued through to July 2002 when the last study tour of hospitals took place in Germany from Frankfurt via Erfurt-Weimar-Dresden-Meissen to Berlin.

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At the UIA-Council meeting held in Barcelona, Spain in July 1996, the UIA decided to restructure the work groups then extant. The term "Group" was replaced by the term "Work Program" and the term "Secretary" was replaced by "Director". At its 86th session held in Chandigarh in India, the UIA-Council accepted the appointment of Dr. Hans-Evert Gatermann, architect BDAao, as Director of the UIA Public Health Work Program.

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In 2003, the German Chamber of Architects informed the UIA that they no longer could support the Public Health Work Program for economic reasons and that the BAK would represent the German Architects at the UIA. The UIA reluctantly accepted this situation and expressed its appreciation of the work done by architect Hans Evert Gatermann as Director of the UIA Public Health Work Program, especially his work in establishing links with the World Health Organisation. 

As a result of these changes, architect Martin Fiset from Canada was appointed as the Director of the UIA Public Health Work Program from January 2004 to July 2005.

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At the 23rd Session of the General Assembly of the UIA in Istanbul in July 2005, architect Luub Wessels from the Netherlands was elected as the Director of the Public Health Work Program, on the nomination of the Dutch Federation of Architects. During his term in this role the secretariat was accommodated within the Netherlands Board for Healthcare Institutions.

Unfortunately during 2007 Luub Wessels had to retire from this role due to ill-health and in January 2008 Hans Eggen was appointed as the Director of the UIA Public Health Work Program.  Hans continued in this role until March 2012 when Professor George Mann from Texas A&M University was appointed as the Director of the UIA PHG.

Unfortunately, in September 2013, George Mann had to retire from this role due to ill-health just prior to the UIA PHG Seminar held in Toronto where Warren Kerr from Australia was elected as the Director.  Warren served in this role until the UIA PHG Congress in London in 2017 when Cliff Harvey from Canada was appointed as the Director for the period 2017-2020.  In September 2020, Dr Ray Pentecost took over as the Director for the period 2020-2023.

For many years the work of each Director of the UIA PHG was ably supported by Janice Axon in her role as the Honorary Secretary of the Work Group.  This entailed preparing the minutes and agendas for the Annual Meetings of the UIA PHG, monitoring the actions and outcomes agreed at each meeting and maintaining the membership roll of Official Members and guests.  In 2015, Janice was unable to attend the UIA PHG Seminar due to ill health and Philip Patrick Sun was appointed to undertake the role of Honorary Secretary.

In 2018, an offer from Texas A&M University to provide a full-time secretariat for the UIA PHG was accepted and is now available to support the current and future members of the Public Health Group Executive in fulfilling the potential of this UIA Work Group. 

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