The field of public health has developed a distinctive way of approaching human health by shifting its focus from the health of individuals to the health of populations. This course revisits the history of this population thinking and how it has helped address and combat a series of historic epidemics.

The public health approach has historically evolved in response to major crises like the plague, smallpox, cholera, tuberculosis, influenza, HIV/AIDS, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Through these examples, we will see that individual health outcomes are intimately tied to the health of the population. This public health approach also helps reveal and address behavioral and social determinants of health through the comparison of population health outcomes.

The scientific methods used to study populations help uncover patterns that would otherwise remain hidden when focused on individual health or anecdotal data. Public health professionals think and respond to crises by researching and comparing population data. The course will also discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic—and the successes and failures surrounding our response to it—reinforces the urgent need for the public at large to understand the rational of the public health approach.

Please note: this course incorporates the previous course on the history of epidemiologic methods (ESP53 History of Epidemiologic Ideas) into a larger frame of the history of public health methods.

Objectives

• Understand that public health focuses on populations whereas medicine focuses on individuals

• Understand that the methods and concepts used in public health are in constant evolution and transformation

• Link the plague, cholera, tuberculosis, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, HIV/AIDS, and Covid-19, in their societal context, with the evolution of specific methods and concepts in public health

• Develop an identity of public health scientists aware of the history of their discipline

Assessment