"Our Goal Is to Build a Bridge Between Society and Science" – Zurab Alkhanishvili on the Georgian Association for Public Health and Well-being

Entrepreneur

13 hours ago

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Public health is one of the main bases of a country's development and the well-being of its citizens. Raising awareness among people in this field changes their quality of life and affects the country's health status and average lifespan. This idea is the foundation of the Georgian Association for Public Health and Well-being, whose goal is to build a bridge between science and society. The organization tries to make reliable health information accessible to everyone, strengthen the medical professional community and involve citizens actively in the development of the field.
Entrepreneur spoke with Zurab Alkhanishvili, the founder of the Georgian Association for Public Health and Well-being, about the organization's activities and goals:
"The Georgian Association for Public Health and Well-being was founded in 2025. However, the need to create it came much earlier and this is how the idea was born. Our team worked for many years actively in public health through various organizations and international projects. During this time, our team, made up mostly of young people, carried out information campaigns, worked on developing sector standards and legal documents and built communication with the public. In recent years, clear challenges showed us that a new, more focused approach was needed. The main motivation became the understanding that more people, especially young people and medical professionals, must get interested in public health issues. Our goal is not only to implement projects but also to increase interest in this field and promote public health as a profession."
The main idea of the association is to connect fundamental science with society. Its work focuses on giving clear and easy-to-understand information based on evidence and science. The organization works using modern methods. That is why the Georgian Association for Public Health and Well-being uses digital channels actively. The team provides the public with reliable and accessible content that fights health-related misinformation and helps people make better decisions.
The association's main directions are:
Promoting digital health – creating online campaigns, webinars and educational materials;
Engaging the community – involving young people, doctors and other interested groups in health promotion;
Creating and sharing knowledge – adapting best practices and evidence to real life and spreading them.
Taking care of health starts with getting correct information and trusting science. When people have reliable, evidence-based knowledge, they take better care of their health and prevent diseases. Restoring and strengthening this trust is one of the association's main goals. It shows that the progress in longer life and controlling diseases is the result of hard work in science and public health.
"We plan to work actively on raising awareness to remind people of the benefits science has brought to humanity over the years. We want everyone to understand that achievements like longer life, lower child death rates and managing diseases that used to be deadly, come from the hard work of public health. Fighting misinformation is part of our mission. We share reliable information to respond to false ideas that have grown recently. Of course, to do this work well, we need to strengthen the field from inside. So one of our important goals is to support young professionals and encourage them to build careers in public health. To make our work lasting and effective, we must work with decision-makers. That is why advocacy is the base of our work – to keep public health a top priority in the country's politics," – explains Zurab Alkhanishvili, founder of the Georgian Association for Public Health and Well-being.
Speaking about an organization like this, its main value is the team – the people who bring together the right skills, knowledge, experience and values.
The Georgian Association for Public Health and Well-being is led by a team whose strength comes from a combination of experience and young energy. These professionals have worked together for years under different organizations, including the United Nations Association and international projects. They have taken part in health promotion campaigns and policy document development, gaining great experience in these fields.
"The core of our team mainly consists of young professionals who deeply believe in the importance of public health and are ready to work on strengthening this field with modern and innovative approaches. This is not something started from scratch – This new, independent organization is the natural outcome of years of experience and knowledge, guided by a clear vision and strong goals," – says Zurab Alkhanishvili.
The founder's own path in public health was not accidental – Zurab Alkhanishvili combined clinical practice with international experience over many years. His career began in dentistry, but he soon realized that caring for health goes beyond individual treatment. It requires a system approach, public involvement and collaboration between different disciplines. This vision, together with close work with international organizations and deep understanding of Georgia's reality, led to the decision to create a national platform that unites professionals working in public health.
"For years, I worked for international organizations such as the World Health Organization, UNICEF, USAID, UNDP and World Vision. This experience gave me a unique chance to work on critical issues like risk communication, vaccination support, infection prevention and control, strengthening primary health care. The COVID-19 pandemic period was especially important, during which I was actively involved in planning strategic communication. This experience taught me how international standards work, but at the same time, through many direct meetings with different groups of the population over the years, I clearly understood the uniqueness of the Georgian context – the strengths and weaknesses of our health system, public attitudes and real needs. Leading the youth component of USAID's Health Access Program showed me power of bringing young people together"
An essential part of the Georgian Association for Public Health and Well-being's work is identifying challenges in the field and dealing with them. One of the most serious challenges is the lack of public trust in science. Zurab Alkhanishvili calls this "historical amnesia" – the society's forgetting of the achievements that science and public health have brought over the years.
"We have become used to the fact that children around us no longer die from poliomyelitis or measles; that the average life expectancy has significantly increased compared to the last century. All this is seen as something normal, not as the greatest achievement of science and public health policy. The most painful example of this issue was the COVID-19 pandemic. When it came to vaccination – a concrete scientific achievement – a large part of the society doubted or completely refused it. This was a crisis moment that showed us that the bridge between fundamental science and public trust is broken. Our association's goal is to restore and strengthen this broken bridge. Our main challenge as an organization is directly connected to a phenomenon called the "public health paradox." This paradox is that our main goal is to do everything so that nothing happens. When we succeed – when epidemics do not break out, diseases are controlled and the population is healthy – our field becomes invisible and, unfortunately, "uninteresting" to political decision-makers. Because of this paradox, we face two main difficulties. The first is financial sustainability. Since prevention is much less '"visible" than solving an existing crisis, investments in this area often decrease. As a result, our sector usually depends on donor funding, which naturally creates an unstable work environment. The second, no less important, is the lack of political will. It is very difficult to convince decision-makers that every Lari spent on prevention is much more effective than tens of thousands of Lari spent on treatment. As we said, when '"nothing happens", it is politically less beneficial, which in turn significantly lowers the priority of this field,"– Zurab Alkhanishvili says in the interview.
As mentioned earlier, informing the public and spreading evidence-based knowledge is the core of the association's work and one of the main tools to achieve this goal is digital channels. Several online platforms have already been launched and operate under the shared brand "Health Diaries," targeting the entire population of Georgia.
The Georgian Association for Public Health and Well-being has launched a science-popular podcast called "Healthy Dialogue." It is worth mentioning that this is the first podcast of its kind in the Georgian digital space. The podcast initially started as part of a project by the United Nations Association of Georgia. It covers the following topics: Fundamental science, where complex issues are explained in simple language; Public Health and medicine – focusing not on treatment but on prevention, screening and behavior change.
In addition, the association has a website, www.gowell.ge – where users can find information about health services, healthy lifestyles, the latest scientific achievements and other relevant topics.
"These platforms were not created just to share one-sided information. On our social media channels we have gathered a community of tens of thousands of people. We constantly listen to their feedback, answer questions and try to adapt our content to their real interests. Through this, we aim to increase public awareness and create a space for healthy discussion. We believe that addressing the complex challenges of public health cannot be done by one organization alone, so collaboration is a very important part of our strategy. We actively seek partnerships with civil society organizations, academic circles and the private sector to unite efforts toward common goals," – says Zurab Alkhanishvili.
Talking about the association's development plans, Zurab Alkhanishvili explains that the team's work is just beginning and everything is developing step by step. In the near future, the association plans to develop the podcast and Gowell.ge. Also starting this autumn the team is planning to add new media projects. Strengthening the association's role as a uniting space for professionals is also a very important priority.
"Ultimately, all this comes together in our main goal – to use the knowledge gained through our work and actively participate in forming evidence-based health policy. In the future, I personally will use my resources to build a bridge between science and society. This will be a bridge connecting professionals from different disciplines, the healthcare system and the people the system is meant to support"
Public health is not a static field – it is a continuous, open process full of challenges. That is why the founder of the organization emphasizes that success in this work requires the active involvement of many people. Zurab Alkhanishvili notes that the Georgian Association for Public Health and Well-being is open to everyone who wants to contribute to a better health future for the country.