The Department of Health care management, Medical ethics, and Information technologies was established in 2022 after the division of the Department of Public Health Sciences.
From a historical perspective, the department inherited the traditions of the "Social Hygiene" department established in May 1976. The founder of which was Ch. Assist. Prof. Dr. Gena Grancharova. During the 1977/78 academic year, the first assistants were assigned: Petkana Hristova (currently professor), Dr. Nevena Tsacheva (currently a professor, Department of Occupational Medicine of the Faculty of Health, MU-Sofia), and Dr. Natashka Danova (currently associate professor at National Center of Public Health and Analysis).
In 1979, the scientific theme of the department was adopted. It was aimed at the incidence of temporary disability, physical development of newborn children (in colaboration with the department "Obstetrics and Gynecology), and epidemiology of uroinfections in the Pleven district. The first student club was established.
In January 1980, Associate Professor Veselin Borisov was elected as head of the department until 1988. In 1987, he defended his doctoral thesis and in 1988 was elected as a professor, after which he moved to work in Sofia.
In the period between 1980-1983, the first monographs were published: "Physical development of newborn children in NRB", "Health care systems" and a scientific review "Medical-social aspects of morbidity with a temporary disability".
In 1985, the department started teaching a new discipline - Introduction to computer technology (subsequently "Informatics").
In 1984 ch. assistant professor Dr. Gena Grancharova was elected for Associated Professor. In the period between 1987-1989, she was Vise Rector of academic work at High Medical Institute – Pleven. After the transfer of Prof. V. Borisov to work in Sofia, Assoc. Prof. G. Grancharova took over the leadership as head of the department.
In 1988 ch. assistant professors Petkana Hristova and Natashka Danova successfully defended their dissertations. Dr. N. Danova moved to work in Sofia. Dr. Magdalena Balashkova was chosen for an assistant professor. She worked in the department for 10 years. Since 1998 she has been transferred to the department of "General Medicine".
In 1989, Dr. Anjelika Velkova was chosen as an assistant professor. She completed her Master's degree in Epidemiology at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam in 1994/95. In 2001, she successfully defended her dissertation. Since 2003 she has been elected as an "associate professor" and since 2012 as a "professor". She currently holds this position at the Faculty of Public Health of the Medical University-Sofia.
Since the academic 1996/97 year, the department has been entrusted with the organization of training in a new specialty for High Medical Institute - Pleven and the country - "Health care" at the educational qualification degree "bachelor" (with two professional qualifications - "Manager of health care" and "Practice Lecturer in a Medical College"). The programme was developed within the framework of technical cooperation with the European Union - PHARE project with the participation of experts from France and Belgium. Assoc. Prof. Grancharova was elected for the head of the new specialty.
In 1998, two new assistants were selected for the pogram of "Medicine" - Dr. Stanislav Vitanov (who worked until 2000) and Dr. Stella Georgieva and two assistants for the program of "Health Care" - Makreta Draganova and Dr. Mariela Kamburova. At the end of 1999, Dr. Silviya Aleksandrova was chosen as an assistant professor, and in 2003 - Nadia Veleva, who is a Master of Economics.
In 2000, the academic staff of the department was filled with an associate professor of pedagogy - associate professor Vili Nisheva.
In 2002 - 2004, Dr. Silviya Aleksandrova completed a 2-year European Master's Program in Bioethics, implemented by 4 European universities: Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, UNI Basel, Radboud University Nijmegen, University of Padova).
In 2001 - 2003, assistant professors Makreta Draganova and Mariela Kamburova completed a master's program in healthcare management.
From the academic year 2001/2002, a post-bachelor's master's program in the specialty "Healthcare" was started. From the academic year 2002/2003, a full-time study in the bachelor's degree in health care was also conducted.
In 2002, the department has been renamed "Social Medicine and Health Management".
In parallel with its participation in the Bulgarian-language and English-language teaching in the "Medicine" programme. The department carries out a significant part of the teaching and coordinates the work of the other lecturers participating in the bachelor's and master's programs in "Healthcare".
In 2004, a DAAD (German Academic Exchange) guest professor worked in the department - Prof. Hanneke van Maanen. He taught 4 study modules in English: "Principles of Nursing Science", "Nursing Diagnosis", "Research Methodology work" and "Public Health and Nursing".
The same year Kiril Statev started working in the department as an assistant in information technologies. Assoc. Prof. Georgi Tsanev became a head of the sector of information technolgoies at 2005.
From 2005 to 2011, Rositsa Kolarova worked in the department, a promising young person who was a PhD student at the University Medical Center Groningen and currently works as Senior Researcher in Health Economics at the University of Oxford.
In 2006, Associate Professor Silvia Tsvetkova has joined the department. She developed teaching in various modules in the fields of psychology and pedagogy.
In 2008, Associate Professor Toni Vekov joined the academic staff of the department. He managed to acquire the scientific degree "Doctor of Sciences" in 2011.
Along with the academic staff’s development, the department strengthens its positions and attracts promising young colleagues. In 2014, after successfully passing competitions, assistant professor Atanas Anov - Master of philosophy from SU "Kliment Ohridski" and assistant professor Asen Seizov - master of informatics and information systems were appointed. In 2015 Dr. Dima Tsanova joined the department as an assistant in social medicine. In 2017 Eleonora Mineva became assistant in medical statistics. In 2019 Assoc. Prof. Penka Stefanova, who worked in the sector of social medicine as an assistant in the period 2011 – 2013, rejoined the department.
Regardless of the huge academic workload, the academic staff of the department works independently and in cooperation with many other departments in the following main scientific areas: epidemiological analysis and assessment of the state and processes of public health in Bulgaria and the European region; needs, management and development of health care in Bulgaria; social gerontology - health status, social problems, consumption of health and medical care, new approaches in the general practitioner's work with the elderly; problems of ethics in medical practice; health-related quality of life in healthy individuals and patients with various diseases; health promotion in schools; medico-social problems in childhood; hospice care management; management and business ethics. The results of these activities have been published in many national and foreign journals and are widely used in the educational process.The department has established contacts with European and international institutions in the field of public health, bioethics and clinical ethics. The educational content of the disciplines is constantly updated. In the period 2013/2014, the academic staff of the department was actively involved in the implementation of the first distance learning program of its kind for a complete master's program in "Public Health and Health Management".
