Who Will Keep the Public Healthy? Educating Public Health Professionals for the 21st Century (2003) / Chapter Skim
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1. Introduction
1. Introduction
Pages 27-40
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From page 27... ...
Food safety and workplace safety improved, flouridation led to improved oral health, and the decrease in motor vehicle deaths represented "the successful public health response to a great technologic advance of the 20th century" (Turnock, 2001~. Indeed, the health of the U.S.
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From page 28... ...
In response, the IOM convened the Committee on Educating Public Health Professionals for the 21st Century. The committee is composed of experts in public health practice, academic public health, public health law, general graduate and continuing education, medical education, health professions training, public policy, social and behavioral sciences, occupational and environmental health, population-based and evaluation research, genomics, informatics, and communication.
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From page 29... ...
, elaborating on this description, identified the activities of public health as including "organized community efforts to prevent, identify, and counter threats to the health of the public." According to the Association of Schools of Public Health (ASPH, 1999) , public health encompasses a population-focused, organized effort to help individuals, groups, and communities reduce health risks, and maintain or improve health status.
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From page 30... ...
However, the primary function of health care delivery organizations is to provide medical care to individuals rather than providing programs oriented to population-level health. Organizational setting, therefore, cannot be used to define a public health professional.
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From page 31... ...
. Individual characteristics were identified as biology, life course, life-style and health behavior, illness behavior, and personality and motivation; environmental characteristics were characterized as social and cultural influences, economic and political factors, physical and geographic factors, and health and social care (IOM, 1999~.
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From page 32... ...
For example, epidemiologic evidence demonstrates that social support improves the prognosis and survival of people with serious cardiovascular disease; social engagement and networks slow the rate of cognitive decline in aging men and women; and more socially integrated societies appear to have better overall quality of life and lower rates of mortality from all causes (IOM, 2002~. Other research demonstrates that public health outcomes are associated with neighborhood cohesiveness, stability and trust, and evidence supports the view that major variations in health among countries is a result of environmental, economic, and social and behavioral factors (IOM, 1997; Beaglehole and Bonita, 1998; Kickbusch and Buse, 2001~.
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From page 33... ...
. The committee believes that understanding the ecological model of determinants of health is necessary to develop, implement, and evaluate the effectiveness of interventions designed to improve health.
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From page 34... ...
This is an ecological view of health; an awareness that shifts in the ecology of human living, in relation to both the natural and social environments, accountfor much of the ebb and.f ow of diseases over time. Public health professionals must be aware of not only the biological risk factors affecting health; they must also understand the environmental, social, and behavioral contexts within which individuals and populations operate in order to identify factors that may hinder or promote the success of their interventions.
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From page 35... ...
This requires an understanding of the ecological model of health and of the linkages and interactions among the determinants of health. With such knowledge public health professionals will be able to develop programs and policies that maximize health outcomes in the complex environment of globalization.
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From page 36... ...
The Human Genome Project officially began in 1990 (Collins, 1999~. By the fall of 1998, technological improvements and rapid progress led project leaders to promise the complete DNA sequence of the human genome by 2003 (Fink and Collins, 2000~.
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From page 37... ...
Further, public health informatics (i.e., the systematic application of information, computer science, and technology to public health practice, research, and learning [Yasnoff et al., 2000~) provides an opportunity for the automation of common tasks (such as real time physician alerts on emerging disease trends detected by surveillance systems)
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From page 38... ...
The vast majority of the nation's health research resources have been directed toward biomedical research endeavors that cannot, by themselves, address the most significant challenges to improving the public's health; comparatively few resources have been devoted to supporting health research on social and behavioral determinants of health (IOM, 2000~. Scrimshaw et al.
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From page 39... ...
They will be able to design and conduct research that contributes to a better understanding of the social and behavioral determinants of health, to develop culturally sensitive programs aimed at reducing racial and ethnic disparities in health, and to contribute to the debate on the ethical use and dissemination of new technologies. The beginning of the 21st century brings new public health opportunities and challenges.
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From page 40... ...
Chapter 4 describes the role of schools of public health in that future. The contributions to public health education of other schools and programs are described in Chapter 5, while Chapter 6 addresses the role of public health agencies in educating public health professionals.
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