Fall 2019 Pulse of Public Health
What is the most significant public health achievement over the past 50 years?
Members of the SPH Community Weigh In Heading link
“Women today have better access to healthcare services that benefit family planning. Services that allow for prevention of pregnancy-related health risks, reducing infant mortality, and reducing adolescent pregnancies. They also include access to preferred contraceptive methods and enabling individuals to make informed decisions regarding their reproductive health.”
| Co-Chair, SPH Alumni Council and Program Manager of Strategic Initiatives at REACH, Rush University Medical Center
“Over the past 50 years, the field of public health has been a leader in elevating the social determinants of health as major contributors to health disparities. On an international scale, public health professionals have also led the way in mobilizing efforts to prevent, identify and treat HIV-related diseases.”
| Chief Medical Officer, Kindred Healthcare Inc.
“The most significant public health achievement in the past 50 years has been the acknowledgment and mass acceptance of racism as a structural determinant of health. This was no small feat and more work needs to be done. But, recognizing the pervasive effects of racism on health is a necessary springboard for interventions aimed at dismantling it and other systems of oppression.”
| Assistant Professor of Community Health Sciences
“U=U, undetectable = untransmittable, is one of our most significant public health advances. The realization that treating those living with HIV can help prevent poor health outcomes, but also prevent the spread of HIV has changed the lives of so many.”
| Program Director, Northwestern McGaw Family Medicine Residency and Medical Director, Lending hands for Life, Erie Family Health Centers
“Public health is such an exciting and dynamic field; there have been a host of remarkable advances over the past half century. In my career, the most significant advances have been in behavior change interventions that identify and engage groups at risk for a wide variety of public health problems. Such approaches have been utilized by the Community Outreach Intervention Projects and have resulted in major advances in reducing HIV risk behaviors in Chicago, the United States and internationally.”
| Professor Emeritus of Epidemiology and Founder, Community Outreach Intervention Projects
“I think that the importance of occupational health and safety is often overlooked, but has definitely created a significant public health impact over the years. Policies regarding safer working conditions have reduced work-related injuries by enforcing employers to create an environment free of serious hazards. It has also promoted labor rights that empowered workers and protected them from exploitation.”
| MPH in Health Policy and Administration student