Defining Clinical Public Health

Bernard Choi; Barry Pakes; Rose Bilotta; Kathryn Graham; Neeru Gupta; Arlene S King; Helen Dimaras; Xiaolin Wei; Brian Gibson; Donna L Reynolds; Shaun K Morris; Peter Selby; Bart J Harvey; Ann L Fox; Beth Rachlis; Shafi Bhuiyan; Onye Nnorom; Ross Upshur

doi:10.25011/cim.v44i2.36479

Defining Clinical Public Health

Clin Invest Med. 2021 Jun 14;44(2):E71-76. doi: 10.25011/cim.v44i2.36479.

Authors

Bernard Choi¹, Barry Pakes², Rose Bilotta³, Kathryn Graham⁴, Neeru Gupta⁵, Arlene S King³, Helen Dimaras⁶, Xiaolin Wei⁷, Brian Gibson³, Donna L Reynolds², Shaun K Morris⁸, Peter Selby⁹, Bart J Harvey³, Ann L Fox¹⁰, Beth Rachlis¹¹, Shafi Bhuiyan¹², Onye Nnorom², Ross Upshur¹³

Affiliations

¹ Division of Clinical Public Health, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, ON, Canada; Public Health Agency of Canada, Government of Canada, Ottawa, ON, Canada; School of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Ottawa, ON, Canada; Injury Prevention Research Center, Shantou University Medical College, Shantou, Guangdong, China. bernard.choi@canada.ca.
² Division of Clinical Public Health, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, ON, Canada; Department of Family and Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, ON, Canada.
³ Division of Clinical Public Health, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, ON, Canada.
⁴ Division of Clinical Public Health, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, ON, Canada; Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto/London, ON, Canada; National Drug Research Institute, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia.
⁵ Division of Clinical Public Health, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, ON, Canada; Department of Ophthalmology and Vision Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, ON, Canada; Keenan Research Centre for Biomedical Science, St. Michael's Hospital, Unity Health Toronto, ON, Canada.
⁶ Division of Clinical Public Health, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, ON, Canada; Department of Ophthalmology and Vision Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, ON, Canada; Department of Ophthalmology and Vision Sciences, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON, Canada; Child Health Evaluative Sciences Program and Centre for Global Child Health, Sick-Kids Research Institute, Toronto, ON, Canada.
⁷ Division of Clinical Public Health, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, ON, Canada; Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, ON, Canada.
⁸ Division of Clinical Public Health, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, ON, Canada; Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, ON, Canada; Division of Infectious Diseases, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON, Canada.
⁹ Division of Clinical Public Health, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, ON, Canada; Department of Family and Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, ON, Canada; Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto/London, ON, Canada; Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, ON, Canada.
¹⁰ Division of Clinical Public Health, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, ON, Canada; Department of Human Nutrition, St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, NS, Canada.
¹¹ Division of Clinical Public Health, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, ON, Canada; ICES, Toronto, Ontario, ON, Canada.
¹² Division of Clinical Public Health, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, ON, Canada; School of Occupational and Public Health and the Chang School of Continuing Education, Ryerson University, Toronto, ON, Canada.
¹³ Division of Clinical Public Health, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, ON, Canada; Department of Family and Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, ON, Canada; Lunenfeld Tanenbaum Research Institute, Sinai Health System, Toronto, ON, Canada.

PMID: 34152710
DOI: 10.25011/cim.v44i2.36479

Abstract

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.

Keywords: clinical public health; consensus definition; clinical practice; public health practice; multidisciplinary collaboration.

MeSH terms

Canada
Humans
Public Health*
Surveys and Questionnaires