Public Health Conversations

‘The Future of Population Health’ Event Cites Challenges, Opportunities

Highlights from the three-part series that convened contributing authors from The Milbank Quarterly’s special issue celebrating its 100th anniversary.

The School of Public Health hosted a three-part series that convened contributing authors from The Milbank Quarterly special centennial issue, The Future of Population Health: Challenges and Opportunities.

The special centennial edition features a collection of articles from leading public health experts, including scholars, researchers, policymakers, and practitioners, who provide insights into the current state of public health, the challenges facing the field, and the opportunities for the future.

A central theme of the centennial edition is the importance of equity in public health, especially in recognizing the inequalities that exist in health outcomes across different populations and geographic areas, and the need for public health interventions to address these disparities. Several articles in the special edition discuss how advances in technology, such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and mobile health applications, can be used to improve public health outcomes. These articles also highlight the potential risks and challenges associated with the use of technology in public health, such as privacy concerns and the need for data security.

In addition to Dean Sandro Galea, SPH contributors to the centennial issue include Alan Cohen, editor of the Milbank Quarterly and professor of health law, policy, & management; Amruta Nori-Sarma, assistant professor of environmental health; Gregory Wellenius, professor of environmental health and director of the SPH Center for Climate and Health; and David Jernigan, professor of health law, policy, & management and assistant dean of practice.

“Public Health Systems and Structures”

“Public Health Systems and Structures,” the first session in the series, featured presentations from Tiffany N. Ford, postdoctoral fellow of economic studies at the Brookings Institution, and an incoming assistant professor of community health sciences at the University of Illinois Chicago School of Public Health; Kushal Kadakia, an MD candidate at Harvard Medical School; Beth McGinty, division chief, Health Policy and Economics, Weill Cornell Medical College; Joshua M. Sharfstein, vice dean for Public Health Practice and Community Engagement, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; Kurt Stange, director of the Center for Community Health Integration, Case Western Reserve University. The session was moderated by Jamie Ducharme, a health correspondent for Time magazine.

“Population Health: Major Challenges”

“Population Health: Major Challenges” touched on many of the issues facing the field, including training new generations of public health professions to tackle climate change, health inequities, and other systemic problems. Featured speakers were Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association; Magdalena Cerdá, professor and director, Center for Opioid Epidemiology and Policy, NYU Grossman School of Medicine; Mateo Farina, postdoctoral scholar, USC Davis School of Gerontology and research affiliate, Population Research Center, University of Texas at Austin; Amruta Nori-Sarma, assistant professor, Boston University School of Public Health. Barbara Moran, climate and environment correspondent at WBUR, moderated the session.

“Policy, Governance, and Structural Determinants of Health”

“Policy, Governance, and Structural Determinants of Health” featured presentations by Tyson Brown, W.L.F. Associate Professor of Sociology, Duke University; Lawrence Gostin, professor and faculty director, O’Neill Institute for National & Global Health Law, Georgetown University; Paula Lantz, James B. Hudak Professor of Health Policy, Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan; Alana LeBrón, assistant professor of Public Health and Chicano/Latino Studies, University of California Irvine. The session moderator was Felice J. Freyer, a health care reporter at the Boston Globe.