Introduction to Public Health

This course will provide you with a basic understanding of public health and the application of public health to your area of work. Public health overlaps with all clinical discipline because of its focus on disease prevention (where possible) and improved health systems and healthcare services for those who need them.

Pubic health is about 1) understanding the distribution of various states of health in a given population; 2) understanding the causes and exposures that drive states of health at a population level; and 3) taking action to improve health, improve access to health services and protect people from hazards that might negatively impact on their health.

States of health can be thought of as being distributed across physical geography, across social and demographic phenomena and distributed over time. The causes of disease can also be thought of as distributed over those same three domains. Understanding those distributions and understanding the links between exposure and outcome is the domain of epidemiologist. Public health practitioners however takes this one step further and asks the question: what can do to improve health at a population level and then take steps to implement those plans. There are a number of disciplines that contribute to Public Health, including: epidemiology, health economics, health policy, management science, the sociology, anthropology, behavioural economics, data science and research.

Public health practitioner very often focus on other disciplines to better understand how population health might be affected or improved. Understanding climate change, for example, provides an opportunity to mitigate some of the health risk associated with it; understanding international trade and intellectual property law provides opportunities to improve access to essential medicines; understanding human rights provides an opportunity to ensure that fair and ethical health systems are put in place.

I hope that you enjoy this course. I'm excited about the opportunity to be part of your learning experience!