Issue link: https://kusm-wichita.uberflip.com/i/1530178
1 with the individual physician/patient relationship but provides another layer that improves individuals' health by addressing the population through policy making and legislative changes. As you will read in the following articles, in addition to having a component of population health in our medical curriculum, we have current and upcoming degrees for those who want a more well-rounded knowledge, who want to set themselves apart as a resident or fellowship candidate, or who want to enhance their opportunities for a public health profession — all with the goal of preventing disease and infection to alleviate their risk factors. recognized. Most people see health as, "I need a doctor because I'm ill." Personal health is a one-on-one physician/patient relationship. Population health tries to prevent illness. For example, when there's an outbreak of some infection or an increase in a symptom that doesn't appear in another location, doctors don't have a sta — or their own time — to investigate and answer questions like why is this happening, how is it being transmitted, why did it appear at this time and what environmental issues are leading to the spread. Public health partners with other advocates and provides education to change behaviors. It doesn't compete This is the analogy S. Edwards Dismuke, M.D., MSPH, used to describe the dierence between personal health and population health during his tenure as the first chair of Preventive Medicine in Wichita, a new department created in 1991 by the University of Kansas for the School of Medicine. The initial goal of the department was to create a Master of Public Health program, which was to be jointly administered with Wichita State University. The program also integrated preventive medicine into the medical school curriculum. Personal health and population health are equally important to all communities and serve unique needs, but population health isn't as well If you had a damaged bridge and people were falling o, what would you do? Throwing life preservers would help save the people who had fallen, but fixing the bridge would have prevented them from falling in the first place. Personal health is like tossing them life preservers, but public, or population health would be equivalent to fixing the bridge. Dean Garold Minns, M.D. Fix the bridge first