DETERMINANTS AND ACHIEVEMENTS OF KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER AND KNOWLEDGE SHARING IN PUBLIC HEALTH INSTITUTIONS IN THE REPUBLIC OF CROATIA - EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS

In the post-Covid era, individual health and well-being have become key priorities. The theme of the 2025 HLPF Conference confirms this by prioritizing several UN SDG sustainable development goals, particularly Goal 3 – Ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages. The Integrated Health Care (IHC) principle provides a forward-thinking, holistic approach that prioritizes the patient as the central point of the healthcare system, emphasizing recovery and overall well-being rather than solely medical treatment. This concept integrates various aspects of patient care, including social, technological, and other relevant health elements, creating a comprehensive framework for improving health outcomes. Implementing IHC principles requires strategic management of partnership networks involving medical institutions, universities, healthy food producers, medical technology developers, and other stakeholders. Knowledge management within these networks is a critical process that ensures instant information, e.g. knowledge transfer. Literature highlights the benefits of these networks, such as reliability, security, scalability, and cost savings.This study investigates the extent of knowledge sharing and knowledge transfer among healthcare professionals working in public health institutions in Croatia. The authors have been using a quantitative method with a smaller sample, surveying healthcare professionals based on Liebowitz's model (2018), which analyzes key institutional factors influencing knowledge transfer in healthcare institutions, such as organizational culture, processes, and management support. The findings identified key opportunities and barriers for improving knowledge transfer in healthcare institutions in Croatia. Based on these results, the authors will propose guidelines for optimizing knowledge transfer processes in healthcare institutions. This research will encourage further scientific discussions and analyses on the topic, initiating strategic guidelines, project initiatives, and best practices in this critical field - global health.