Applied epidemiology and public health: are we training the future generations appropriately?

Abstract

To extend the reach and relevance of epidemiology for public health practice, the science needs be broadened beyond etiologic research, to link more strongly with emerging technologies and to acknowledge key societal transformations. This new focus for epidemiology and its implications for epidemiologic training can be considered in the context of macro trends affecting society, including a greater focus on upstream causes of disease, shifting demographics, the Affordable Care Act and health care system reform, globalization, changing health communication environment, growing centrality of team and transdisciplinary science, emergence of translational sciences, greater focus on accountability, big data, informatics, high-throughput technologies (“omics”), privacy changes, and the evolving funding environment. This commentary describes existing approaches to and competencies for training in epidemiology, maps macro trends with competencies, highlights an example of competency-based education in the Epidemic Intelligence Service of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and suggests expanded and more dynamic training approaches. A re-examination of current approaches to epidemiologic training is needed.

Building Capacity for Evidence-Based Public Health: Reconciling the Pulls of Practice and the Push of Research

“…This section briefly describes a set of challenges in public health that take into account issues raised in this review, current priorities in public health, the body of available evidence, how the evidence is applied across various settings, and broader macro-level changes (30, 58). While these examples are not exhaustive, they illustrate the vast array of capacity-related issues faced by public health practitioners currently and in the coming years and areas for practice-based research.…”

A new twenty-first century science for effective epidemic response

“…This will require considerable changes by the global public health community in the way that we respond to epidemics today and how we prepare for and seek to prevent those of tomorrow. It will mean reshaping the global health architecture of the response to epidemics and transforming how we train new generations of researchers and practitioners for the epidemics of the future 10 .…”

Public Health Entrepreneurship: A Novel Path for Training Future Public Health Professionals

“…PHE reflects both the mindset of questioning assumptions, challenging the status quo, and imagining bold new solutions; and the skillset of creating new interventions, products and services to address public health needs. Advantages of PHE include that it: (1) is consistent with existing interventions and community action models in delineating the design, prototyping, implementation, evaluation, and scaling of evidence-based solutions in both new and existing settings; (2) is a vehicle for expanding the public health workforce and the scope of resources available to achieve improved public health; (3, 7, 21); and (3) offers the potential to effectively engage with the myriad stakeholders involved in public health beyond sectors and institutions traditionally associated with public health.…”

“…A wealth of knowledge was collected as a result of the historical focus on research to understand causes and pathways of disease at the population level. More recent efforts call for a translational focus in public health to apply that knowledge base toward action and solution implementation that are sustainable over time (5–7). Additionally, there is an increased recognition that a translational focus that addresses the social and environmental determinants of health and incorporates collaborative expertise on poverty, gender, housing, transportation, climate, and humanitarian challenges among others is of paramount importance (3, 8, 9).…”