Purpose: To solve complex health issues, an innovative and multidisciplinary framework is necessary. The Clinical Public Health (CPH) Division was established at the University of Toronto (UofT), Canada to foster inte-gration of primary care, preventive medicine and public health in education, practice and research. To better understand how the construct of CPH might be applied, we surveyed clinicians, researchers and public health professionals affiliated with the CPH Division to assess their understanding of the CPH concept and its utility in fostering broad collaboration. Methods: A two-wave anonymous survey of the active faculty of the CPH Division, UofT was conducted across Canada. Wave 1 participants (n = 187; 2016) were asked to define CPH, while Wave 2 participants (n = 192; 2017) were provided a synthesis of Wave 1 results and asked to rank each definition. Both waves were asked about the need for a common definition, and to comment on CPH. Results: Response rates for the first and second waves were 25% and 22%, respectively. Of the six definitions of CPH from Wave 1, “the intersection of clinical practice and public health,” was most highly ranked by Wave 2 participants. Positive perceptions of CPH included multidisciplinary collaboration, new fields and insights, forward thinking and innovation. Negative perceptions included CPH being a confusing term, too narrow in scope or too clinical. Conclusion: The concept of Clinical Public Health can foster multidisciplinary collaboration to address com-plex health issues because it provides a useful framework for bringing together key disciplines and diverse professional specialties.
Introduction Effective, sustained collaboration between clinical and public health professionals can lead to improved individual and population health. The concept of clinical public health promotes collaboration between clinical medicine and public health to address complex, realworld health challenges. In this commentary, we describe the concept of clinical public health, the types of complex problems that require collaboration between individual and population health, and the barriers towards and applications of clinical public health that have become evident during the COVID19 pandemic. Rationale The focus of clinical medicine on the health of individuals and the aims of public health to promote and protect the health of populations are complementary. Interdisciplinary collaborations at both levels of health interventions are needed to address complex health problems. However, there is a need to address the disciplinary, cultural and financial barriers to achieving greater and sustained collaboration. Recent successes, particularly during the COVID19 pandemic, provide a model for such collaboration between clinicians and public health practitioners Conclusion A public health approach that fosters ongoing collaboration between clinical and public health professionals in the face of complex health threats will have greater impact than the sum of the parts.
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