Transcript Towards a common definition for Global Health

Jeffrey P. Koplan, MD, MPH
Vice President for Global Health
Emory University
 decision-making based on data and evidence (vital
statistics, surveillance and outbreak investigations,
laboratory science)
 a focus on population rather than individuals
 a quest for social justice and equality
 a focus on prevention rather than curative care
Public health is the science and art of preventing
disease, prolonging life, and promoting physical
health and efficacy through organized community
efforts for the sanitation of the environment, the
control of communicable infections, the education
of the individual in personal hygiene, the
organization of medical and
C.E.A. Winslow 1920
John Last defines public health as “one
of the efforts to protect, promote and
restore the people’s health. It is the
combination of science, skills and beliefs
that is directed to the maintenance and
improvement of the health of all the
people through collective or social
actions.”
Dictionary of Epidemiology (2001)
International Health
Health work involving countries
beyond one’s own, with a geographic
focus on developing nations and often
with a content focus on infectious and
tropical diseases, water and sanitation,
malnutrition, and maternal and child
health.
What is the interdisciplinary
scope of “global health”?