About us

The vdää* is a medi­cal pro­fes­sio­nal asso­cia­ti­on for phy­si­ci­ans that sees its­elf as a cri­ti­cal and pro­gres­si­ve alter­na­ti­ve to medi­cal asso­cia­ti­ons focu­sed on pro­fes­sio­nal poli­cy. It pro­vi­des a space for soci­al­ly and self-cri­ti­cal dis­cus­sions, pro­mo­tes net­wor­king among poli­ti­cal­ly acti­ve doc­tors, medi­cal stu­dents and psy­cho­lo­gists, pro­du­ces ana­ly­ses and enga­ges in social deba­tes. It was foun­ded in 1986.

Cross-pro­fes­sio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal soli­da­ri­ty, as well as broad poli­ti­cal coope­ra­ti­on in alli­ances and popu­lar initia­ti­ves and refe­ren­dums at natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal level, are key pil­lars of our work, as is the gro­wing num­ber of regio­nal and local groups.

Through press releases, events, par­ti­ci­pa­ti­on in demons­tra­ti­ons, state­ments and back­ground infor­ma­ti­on for jour­na­li­stic rese­arch, we con­tri­bu­te to public and spe­cia­list deba­tes on health poli­cy.

Once a year, the vdää orga­ni­s­es a Health Poli­cy Forum in con­junc­tion with its gene­ral mee­ting, fea­turing lec­tures, work­shops and dis­cus­sions on cur­rent and fun­da­men­tal health poli­cy issues. The association’s maga­zi­ne, “Gesund­heit braucht Poli­tik” (Health Needs Poli­tics), is published at least four times a year.

We regard cri­ti­cal ana­ly­sis and poli­ti­cal orga­ni­sa­ti­on as key buil­ding blocks for shif­ting the balan­ce of power towards a demo­cra­tic and soli­da­ri­ty-based health.