Public health is the science and art of disease prevention and health promotion through planned
effort and informed choices in a society, either through the private, public, or government
sectors. Public health focuses mostly on the population rather than individuals, aiming to address
the underlying determinants of health, be more holistic on why and how certain instances can be
prevented, determine medical services, diagnoses, treatments, prevent injury and illness, and
promote and maintain overall health, with a focus on the delivery of medical care in a direct
interaction manner 1,6.
The approaches and achievements of public health and healthcare are often seen as prevention
versus cure or individual versus population health. But the two fields are complementary in the
sense that healthcare and public health systems have significant parties that play key roles in
shaping policies, delivering services, and advocating for improvements in general,
socioeconomic, cultural, and environmental conditions. Some of these influential parties are
government agencies, stakeholders, individuals, and organizations at the local, state, and national
levels, setting regulations, allocating funding, conducting research, and implementing programs
to protect and promote public health. Examples include the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the National Institutes of Health
(NIH), which work with healthcare providers such as physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and other
allied health professionals and are influential in delivering healthcare services and shaping
patient care practices2,3.
Due to the different goals, approaches, and resource allocations, public health and healthcare
delivery systems appear as competing entities. Healthcare delivery systems provide primarily
care for individuals already ill or injured, while public health focuses on population-level
intervention. These differences may lead to competition in funding allocation, policy priorities,
and public perception1.
Influential parties and opinion leaders often collaborate to mobilize resources metaphorically,
either mechanical (water sanitation, food safety) or biological (ecological factors, hosts, vectors,
or pathogens) to promote health and equity at government, NGO, institution, stakeholder, etc 5.
Financial challenges such as traditional funding are less desirable compared to integrative
system-based funding, which is more suitable for a centralized health system 1.
In the holy book of John 5:1 Jesus healed a man who had been sick for a long time. The man had
been lying by the pool for years. When Jesus saw the man, He had compassion on him creating
consistency in a system delivery but in Luke 13:12-15 same Jesus Christ son of God healed and
set a woman free from infirmities and was chastised for doing that on a sabbath day. Same
system may favor some people and not all.
References
1. Widnall E, Hatch L, Albers PN, et al. Implementing a regional school health research
network in england to improve adolescent health and well-being, a qualitative process
evaluation. 2023;23(1). doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-15713-9
2. Leischow SJ, Milstein B. Systems Thinking and Modeling for Public Health Practice.
American Journal of Public Health. 2006;96(3):403-405.
doi:https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.2005.08284
3. Proceedings from the 12th Annual Conference on the Science of Dissemination and
Implementation. Implementation Science. 2020;15(S1).
doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13012-020-00985-1
4. Plsek PE, Greenhalgh T. Complexity science: The challenge of complexity in health
care. BMJ. 2001;323(7313):625-628. doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.323.7313.625
5. Fritjof Capra. The Web of Life: A New Scientific Understanding of Living Systems.;
1997. Accessed February 14, 2024. https://archive.org/details/fritjof-capra-web-of-life-
new-scientific-understanding-of-living-systems-ocr
6. 1.Cabaj JL, Musto R, Ghali WA. Public health: who, what, and why? Canadian Journal of
Public Health. 2019;110(3):340-343. doi:https://doi.org/10.17269/s41997-019-00207-2
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