SWEDISH SOUTH ASIAN STUDIES NETWORK

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WHO Collaborating Centre for Education, Training & Research in Oral Health, Centre for Oral Health Sciences, Faculty of Odontology, Malmö University

Postal address: Malmö University, Faculty of Odontology, SE-205 06 Malmö, Sweden
Visiting address: Carl Gustafs Väg 34
Web page: http://www.mah.se/fakulteter-och-omraden/Odontologiska-fakulteten/

Contact person: Dr. Jayanthi Ramanathan Stjernswärd, Director, phone: +46 (0)40 665 85 40

The work of the Centre for Oral Health Sciences in Malmö has had an international touch ever since it started in the 1940s. Many of the very first professors were globetrotters who opened the college to international contacts. This includes both contacts in developing countries with widespread dental problems requiring affordable and simple solutions, and industrial countries where they are developing and refining techniques for advanced dental treatment. The Centre took an early interest in the dental health problems of the Third World, which has become a distinctive research profile. The knowledge of Third World issues built up in the faculty also made the Centre attractive to the World Health Organization, and as a result the Centre attained the status of a WHO Collaborating Centre in 1987. For many years, Prof. Douglas Bratthall became Project Manager for the so-called WHO Oral Health Country/Area Profile Programme (CAPP).
When Lund University started its Programme for East and South-East Asian Studies in 1984 (a programme that 10 years later was transformed into the present Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies, ACE), the odontological contacts in that part of the world proved to be very useful and Prof. Bratthall was selected to become the first chairman of the new programme.

The former CAPP Director, Prof. Douglas Bratthall, with Jayanthi Ramanathan Stjernswärd (sitting) and Gisela Tayanin.

WHO Collaborating Centre

Initially, the WHO Collaborating Centre covered a wide field from brief expert commissions to projects lasting for several years in developing countries. Since 2006, the main task of the Collaborating Centre is to compile and manage a database about oral health and the dental status in all the member countries of the United Nations. Known as the WHO Oral Health Country/Area Profile Programme (acronym CAPP), this is available on the Internet. Prof. Bratthall was the Project Manager for the CAPP from 1995–2006. He passed away on the 1st of October, 2006.

The WHO Collaborating Centre for Education, Training & Research in Oral Health is now run by two directors, Dr. Peter Carlsson and Dr. Jayanthi Ramanathan Stjernswärd (CAPP scientist of Srilankan origin) and the dentist Gisela Tayanin (of Laotian and Thai origin), see the photo to the right.
Link to the database: WHO Oral Health Country/Area Profile Programme

Data included in the CAPP database have been obtained from standard surveys assisted by WHO, or from published literature using comparable methods. In many cases they apply to large groups from the most populous parts of a country providing a working estimate rather than being fully representative. Sources/references are given under every data presented in the relevant country pages, here direct links to the nations of South Asia:

In 2010, the Malmö Centre was re-designated by WHO, as a WHO Collaborating Centre for another period of 4 years (the redesignation is done every 4 years). We have been a WHO CC since 1984. There are only 20 Oral Health related WHO CCs in the World. See a list of all WHO Collaborating Centres.
The Centre has also been awarded funds to run the WHO CC by Region Skåne for 3 years, starting from 2010. This is regarded an honour and recognition of the eminent work being done.