Public Health Sciences: Challenges and Opportunities
A report of the Public Health Sciences Working Group convened by the
Wellcome Trust
http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/en/1/awtpubrepphs.html/en/1/awtpubordhom.htm


The terms of reference of the Working Group convened by the Wellcome Trust
were to consider the current state of the public health sciences in the UK
and make recommendations on measures that will enhance their impact upon the
public health. The Group was concerned with the public health sciences and
how they relate to public health practice in the inter-related areas of
health services, health protection and health improvement.
Impressive achievements in the biomedical sciences and medical care can
obscure the fact that the circumstances in which people live, whether these
circumstances are under their personal control or not, are still the major
determinants of health.
The need to place far greater emphasis in healthcare on the prevention of
illness and the promotion of good health rather than focusing predominantly
on treating ill-health has been starkly highlighted by the Wanless report of
February 2004 and the Government is to publish a White Paper on Public
Health in the summer.
Given the enormously increased expectations of public health, greater
investment in the public health sciences is now crucial if this opportunity
is not to be missed.
Public health policy and practice has to be underpinned by academic research
through measures to design, conduct and evaluate public health interventions
to improve public health in the UK in the most beneficial and cost-effective
way.
The report highlights the extraordinary disparity between, on the one hand,
the overriding importance of the public health sciences for public
protection, service provision and health improvement and, on the other, the
limited strategic interest that is taken in their infrastructure and
conduct.

Conclusions
The Working Group concluded that a concerted programme was needed to bring
together three basic components:
Routine and other research data that provide the basis for understanding the
causes of disease, the determinants of population ill-health and the
benefits of treatments and health improvement programmes.
People competent and entitled to generate, manage, access, and interpret
such data.
A framework for implementing the outcome of public health sciences research
through policy implementation.

Recommendations
The Working Group recommends:
Establishing a top-level funders' group to develop a strategy for securing
the future of public health research.
Identifying the regulatory barriers that may hamper this type of work.
Investing in the long-term in the academic infrastructure at undergraduate,
postgraduate, research fellow, lecturer and professorial levels.
Establishing Public Health Centres to bring together the different
scientific disciplines needed to address public health issues.
Developing a more informed dialogue between scientists, the public and the
media to convey a better understanding of health risks.
Developing policy based on evidence and not on assumptions.



Melissa Raven, Lecturer, Drugs & Public Health Coordinator
Department of Public Health, Flinders University
GPO Box 2100, ADELAIDE  SA  5001
Physical address G5 Flats, Flinders Medical Centre, BEDFORD PARK
Phone  (08) 8204 5714   Fax  (08) 8204 5693   International 61 8

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