What is Public Health?

What is public health?

While clinical medicine treats one patient at a time, public health aims to prevent illness and injury in whole communities and populations. It seeks large-scale, evidence-based solutions to help all people live longer, healthier lives.

At its best, public health is often invisible. Itʼs the clean water running through our taps. Itʼs disease outbreaks that donʼt happen. Itʼs the regulations that monitor our food supply for contaminants and keep our air safe to breathe. Public health shows up in our everyday lives in the form of bike lanes, airbags, nutrition labels, workplace safety laws, school lunch programs, public transit, senior living facilities, addiction support groups—the list goes on.

The field of public health aims to understand and address a wide range of issues, including chronic disease, disability, mental health, disaster response, refugee health, aging, violence, injuries, environmental exposures, and substance use.

Public health brings together systems and stakeholders, including researchers, health departments, governments, advocates, clinicians, and individuals. For example, microbiologists work to develop safe and effective vaccines and behavioral scientists research ways to encourage people to get vaccinated. Epidemiologists evaluate the causes of and solutions to infant mortality and infectious diseases, and local health departments deploy resources to educate and protect their communities. Environmental health scientists track pollutants and exposures linked to asthma and health policy analysts make recommendations to improve health insurance programs. Gun violence researchers study root causes and evidence-based solutions and advocates push for policy change.

How Public Health Improves Individual Health

Addressing a population’s health promotes and protects individual health.

For example:

• While an emergency responder treats a gunshot wound, public health researchers work to identify the causes of gun violence and develop evidence-based interventions to prevent it.
• While pediatricians stabilize premature newborns, public health experts investigate the environmental and genetic factors at play and develop programs to support healthy babies.
• While a doctor prescribes medication for high blood pressure, public health examines how social determinants of health impact a person’s risk for the condition—and uses data to influence policy aimed at reducing it.

Ways the Bloomberg School Has Shaped Public Health

Every day, our researchers are working to develop and implement solutions that will improve and save lives.

Here are just some of they ways they’re doing that:

• Understanding and reducing dementia risk through hearing health and physical activity
• Making roads safer
• Identifying policies that reduce gun violence
• Ensuring medical technology works for everyone
• Finding new ways to fight mosquito-borne diseases
• Measuring the impacts of abortion bans
• Preventing suicide in Native American communities
• Understanding the impact of the overdose epidemic

Read more articles and news releases showcasing the work and insights of our faculty.

Since 1916, the School and its leaders and alumni have made history with trailblazing research, discoveries, and accomplishments, including:

• Studying the role of vitamin A in preventing blindness and reducing child mortality in developing countries.
• Discovering vitamin D and its role in preventing rickets.
• Developing an iron-fortified infant formula program that became a model for the federal Women, Infants and Children (WIC) nutrition supplementation program.
• Helping to greatly reduce childhood mortality from diarrheal diseases through oral rehydration therapy and vaccines.
• Directing the WHO’s Smallpox Eradication Programme, which eradicated the disease in 1980.
• Helping transform HIV from a death sentence into a treatable chronic condition.
• Establishing the public health field of injury prevention.

Learn more about the School’s contributions to public health: 
Bloomberg School Through the Years

Careers in Public Health

A degree in public health opens doors to countless career options in both the public and private sectors.

Beyond traditional paths in clinical research, academia, and federal government, Bloomberg School graduates work in a wide range of industries and roles in the U.S. and abroad. Explore the Graduate Employment Outcomes Dashboard for a closer look at where our alumni have landed in recent years.

Here are just some of the many fields a public health degree can open the door to:

• Health communications
• Pharmaceutical research and development
• Hospital administration
• Community health nursing
• Public affairs consulting
• Local and state health department leadership
• Children’s nutrition
• Community mental health intervention
• Health policy advocacy
• Humanitarian aid management
• Data analysis
• Emergency preparedness and response planning
• Laboratory research and operations
• Environmental policy advising
• Nonprofit administration
• City planning
• Behavioral health research

Getting Started in Public Health

Whether you’re just starting to think about your academic future or considering a career change, there are steps you can take now to begin your public health journey:

Find your passion: Maybe a specific health issue has impacted you or a loved one, and you want to keep it from affecting others. Or you’re someone who likes getting deep into data and solving complex puzzles. Perhaps you saw the toll that COVID took on your community and you want to be a part of preventing the next pandemic. Finding what motivates you will help you determine where you can have the most impact.

Explore the options: Our academic program finder can help you discover offerings that fit your interests and goals—including part-time and online programs, full-time degree programs, certificate programs for working professionals, and free online courses that anyone can complete.

Request information about programs: If you’re considering graduate studies in public health, get in touch with us to request more information about program requirements and scholarship opportunities.

Browse the Bloomberg School’s 10 departments and 80+ centers and institutes to learn how each is contributing to public health.