Integrating Public Health and Health Care — Protecting Health as a Team Sport

Abstract

Public health's mission is to put data into action to protect health and improve lives.Fulfilling this mission has been challenging in the United States, even though the field now has more ways to protect health than ever.In the face of escalating chronic-disease and behavioral health crises and emerging infectious diseases, several public health indicators, such as life expectancy 1 , drug-overdose deaths, and unacceptable maternal mortality highlight how much work we still need to do. 2 Protecting health is a team sport -yet, the systems meant to protect health have been siloed for too long.The United States needs an integrated system that protects the public's health -one that goes well beyond the reach of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), health departments, and "traditional" public health.The health care sector is on the front lines when it comes to preventing and treating acute and chronic conditions.Clinicians have trusted relationships with individual patients and use clinical findings to address current and future health issues, whereas the public health field provides data and promotes evidence-based interventions for protecting and promoting health in communities.Public health monitoring of health threats also permits early detection and containment of outbreaks.The U.S. mpox response exemplified the public health and health care team-based approach that is needed in responding to health threats.The CDC worked with the Food and Drug Administration and commercial laboratories to expand the availability of diagnostic tests within weeks after the first case was reported in the United States.The tests were modified for high-throughput instruments and distributed by means of existing provider-tolab networks so that physicians could immediately test patients with mpox symptoms, and in turn provide more rapid treatment.Testing capacity increased from 6000 to 80,000 specimens per week, data were shared by means of electronic reporting from labs to CDC and state public health agencies, and the number of patient cases decreased with effective testing, behavior change, and treatment. 3blic health-health care partnerships can also improve routine care delivery.For example, perinatal quality collaboratives are a critical form of public health infrastructure in many

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