The Public’s Health

In this section of the portal, we will develop a series of modules that will treat the origins of “public health,” the notion of care for a public rather than an individual.  

Public Health has been a political concept, the “citizen-patient” of the French Revolution.  Is there a human right to health?  A political right to health care?  

Public Health has been a practical concept, how the health of a population should be protected and managed through law, sanitation, provision of hospitals, government agencies, education, policies, technology, and a variety of social actors.  First begun at the level of the city and expanded to national and international levels, public health is first and always local.

Physicians have been public actors, helping to plan cities, draft laws, shape families, and decide questions of life, death, and political rights.  Epidemics have also forced social change, like equitable access to natural resources and new rights for the poor.

This section will feature an interactive module, Public Health in Hamilton, through which students will be able to explore the complexity of the determinants of health, the interdependent factors that impact health and well-being for a given population:

  • Social
  • Economic
  • Cultural
  • Environmental
  • Policy
  • Infrastructural
  • Family
  • Historical
  • Gender 

The Public’s Health is being developed in consultation with the Master of Public Health Program in the Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at McMaster University.

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