The National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ) is the central Slovenian institution for public health practice, research and education. Its academic staff work on various tasks covering the areas of epidemiology of communicable and non-communicable diseases, health promotion, health protection, health system research and national coordination of preventive programmes in primary health care. It also functions as the central statistical authority in health. Although public health practice is not in the exclusive domain of a single type of organisation or profession, in Slovenia as in many other countries, the majority of important public health functions and services are provided by NIJZ.
The main function of NIJZ is to provide research in the field of health, protect and increase the level of health of the population by raising the awareness of population and carrying out other preventive measures. NIJZ’s main activities are funded by the Ministry of Health and include national health statistics and research in the field of public health including health care systems; activities to identify health threats and design measures for their control; designing and providing health promotion programmes and preparing a scientific background for health-friendly policies, programmes and measures for disease prevention.
NIJZ is a public institute. Following legislation changes brought about by the Slovenian Health Services Act in 2013, the previous institution (also named the National Institute of Public Health) underwent organisational restructuring. From 2014 onward, NIJZ is organised as one central unit with nine regional offices. NIJZ employs over 600 staff members.
