clinical epidemiology

Public health careers appeal to different people for different reasons, just as certain universities make more sense for certain individuals. The university you choose should be a conduit through which you can achieve your aspirations, and there are many factors to consider in the selection process. For some the most important of these may be prestige, while others may weigh connections or affordability more heavily.

If “public health” refers to caring for the collective health of a population, then “public health economics” is the science of how a society takes on and manages this responsibility with limited resources. Public health policy is broad: While some of it does focus directly on healthcare, other areas as disparate as environmental protection, individual habit change and infectious disease control all contribute to the economics of public health.1 Studies indicate that there are economic benefits to preventing disease, not just for sick individuals, but for society at large.

Evidence-based public health interventions have saved millions of lives since 1854, when Dr. John Snow first identified a public water well as the source of a major cholera outbreak in London. In the decades since, public health interventions have been instrumental in improving the health and well-being of people in large and small communities.1

Throughout the mid-19th century, clinicians noted the impact of socio-environmental factors on healthcare. From unusually high incidences of breast cancer in Italian nuns to cancers that only seemed to affect chimney sweeps in Great Britain, medical literature of the period carefully traced the connections between cultural background and wellness. This led some physicians to theorize that disease was strongly related to societal dysfunction and inequality, and that improving schools and working conditions could help to alleviate disparities in mortality across social classes.