Health sciences as an interdisciplinary challenge: the development of a new scientific field

Health sciences in Central Europe have been established in recent years as the academic complement to public health. Unlike the situation outside Europe the link between academia, administration and practical application has become a distinct characteristic of this European philosophy. In this article the two questions are posed: 1. as to which structural problems characterize research into health and illness today and 2. how far can the establishment of an interdisciplinary sphere of "health sciences" provide adequate solutions? The authors also sketch the outlines of the new health sciences as an intergrating and "trans-paradigmatical" teaching and research field and they consider the relationships of health sciences to practice in general, and their relevance to the health services in particular. The challenges in the future for public health and therefore for the health sciences will be enormous. A breakthrough in this field will probably not be achieved until the research interests of clinical specialists and researchers oriented towards social and behavioural sciences are linked over a broad front. It is also hoped that from this connection-embeded in open scientific discourse-"health sciences" will arise, not as part of medicine, and not as part of this social sciences, but with their own claims and specific conceptions as to how the problems of our health system can be resolved.