This month, the University of Cambridge will be profiling research that addresses public health. To begin, Professor Carol Brayne, Director of the Cambridge Institute of Public Health, explains how the goals of a new University Strategic Network, PublicHealth @ Cambridge, will generate fresh insight into the health and well-being of populations.
This month, the University of Cambridge will be profiling research that addresses public health. To begin, Professor Carol Brayne, Director of the Cambridge Institute of Public Health, explains how the goals of a new University Strategic Network, PublicHealth @ Cambridge, will generate fresh insight into the health and well-being of populations.
Our vision for PublicHealth@Cambridge is to develop synergy across Cambridge in areas of public health importance such as international health, social and behavioural science and methodological advances.
Professor Carol Brayne
Public health has been described as the organised efforts of society to improve the health and well-being of whole populations. Putting it into practice – such as through cancer screening or vaccination programmes, controlling tobacco consumption or encouraging healthy behaviour – has had major impacts worldwide, resulting in longer, healthier lives.
Its success is clearly related to the availability and progress of medical interventions. But its success is also related to innovations in agriculture, architecture and engineering, and a deeper understanding of the social science of behaviour and many other areas. Public health is a truly multidisciplinary undertaking, which is why in Cambridge we have recently created PublicHealth @ Cambridge, a Strategic Network that draws together 300 researchers from the arts, humanities, social sciences, technology and biomedicine who have an interest in public health.
The need for public health research is as great as ever. Longer life means a rise in dementia and other diseases associated with ageing. The emergence of epidemics of non-communicable disorders such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, chronic lung diseases and diabetes, which kill three in five people worldwide, pose challenges in the developed and developing world alike. And, re-emerging communicable diseases, resistance and the role of infection in chronic diseases are also public health concerns.
The cost of making poor decisions about public health will have profound consequences and necessitates some tough questions to be asked: can we alter health outcomes by influencing whole societal structural change? How should investment in prevention be balanced with investment in treatment? How, and based on what evidence, do we implement new technologies? Will health systems provide affordable care for everyone everywhere?
Add to this the manifold changes taking place in English public health services and research, as the government sets out its vision for improving well-being across the whole population, it’s as critical to ensure that we draw on a rich mix of disciplines to inform public health as it is to align research to health, social care and commissioning provision.
Our vision for PublicHealth @ Cambridge is to develop synergy across Cambridge in areas of public health importance such as international health, social and behavioural science and methodological advances. By co-ordinating research and activities, kick-starting new approaches and new programmes – from molecule to policy making, regional to global, campus to community – we aim to generate fresh insight into the health and well-being of populations.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Licence. If you use this content on your site please link back to this page.
