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About the Department
of Public Health
A brief history
Public health activities and teaching at Cornell University Medical
College began shortly after the college was founded in 1898. In
1903 Dr. John C. Torrey joined the staff of the Medical College
and initiated a research and teaching program focused primarily
on infectious disease prevention and environmental control.
Projects of the Department under the leadership of Dr. Wilson Smilie
from 1937-1955 anticipated many of the current health care concerns
and issues.
Dr. Walsh McDermott, the chairman from 1955 to 1972, was a nationally
known researcher in infectious disease and was a major leader in
the development of local and national health policy.
Dr. George Reader, the chairman from 1972 to 1992, developed an
innovative and widely imitated Comprehensive Care and Teaching Program
where physicians from Medicine, Psychiatry, Pediatrics and Public
Health as well as social workers worked side by side to provide
comprehensive care.
Dr. Robert B. Millman, an internist and psychiatrist, was acting
chairman of the Department from 1992 to 1999. He introduced research
into the prevention of smoking, violence, drug and alcohol abuse.
On September 1, 1999, Alvin I. Mushlin, MD, ScM, was appointed Chairman
of the Department of Public Health and the first Nanette Laitman
Distinguished Professor of Public Health. He is also the corresponding
Chief at New York Presbyterian Hospital since the department became
a clinical department of the Hospital. His arrival set in motion
a strategic plan, organizational restructuring, recruitment of new
faculty and the complete renovation of departmental research and
administrative space.
As we journey into the 21st Century, we recognize that the changing
dynamics of the health care system and rapid advances in medical
science demand that the expertise and resources of the Department
of Public are utilized in order to deliver health care effectively
and efficiently. We also recognize that in doing so we should anticipate
even greater advances in our patients' and our population's health.
Public Health: a definition
Public health is the discipline devoted to the study of health and
disease in populations. Its goal is to improve the health status
and well being of individuals and groups through the design and
conduct of preventive programs, as well as by providing information,
training and the skills necessary to improve the effectiveness and
delivery of medical care. It contributes to new knowledge through
research and the application of population and social science to
the health problems of individuals and populations.
Our Mission
It is our mission to improve health care and strengthen medical
education by bringing the public health disciplines into the Medical
College and NewYork-Presbyterian Healthcare System's research, patient
care and teaching efforts.
Our multi-disciplinary faculty, with its combined expertise in epidemiology,
biostatistics, health economics, policy analysis, outcomes and effectiveness
research, medical ethics and the behavioral sciences, complement
and strengthen the tripartite mission of the Medical College and
the Hospital to provide first-rate, high quality care for its patients,
educate the next generation of physicians and medical scientists,
and advance the science and art of the medical professions.
The focus of the Department of Public Health can be
expressed diagrammatically:
Focus
The interface between public health and medicine
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The Building Blocks
With the recent merger of two of the country's leading academic
health centers (New York Hospital and the Columbia Presbyterian
Hospital are now the NewYork Presbyterian Hospital), the vision
and goals for the Department are to utilize and take advantage of
the extraordinary and unique health services "laboratory"
created by the merger and the development of its health care system.
To do so, the department has been organized into five integrated
divisions and three methodological cores:
Division of Prevention
and Health Behavior: focuses on the increasingly
important role of health promotion and disease prevention. Its Multiethnic
Drug Abuse Prevention Research Center, funded by the National Institute
on Drug Abuse, investigates the root causes and interventions for
drug abuse and violence prevention during adolescence.
Division of Community
and Public Health Program: the role of this division
is to develop and manage clinical and community programs in prevention.
Its goal is to develop programs that, either alone or in collaboration
with other departments or organizations, combat public health problems
and integrate them into the health care delivery programs of the
Hospital/Network.
Division of Outcomes
and Effectiveness Research:
this division initiates, conducts and collaborates on outcomes research,
quality of care research and clinical economic evaluations. Division
faculty utilize the Hospital and Network for these studies in order
to generate new knowledge about medical technologies and clinical
strategies and to improve the quality and efficiency of care.
Division
of Health Services and Policy Research: this division
is responsible for conducting research into the organization, financing,
and delivery of health care. It takes advantage of the Hospital
merger and the extensive healthcare network to do health policy
research and to study systems initiatives to enhance the accessibility,
quality and cost-effectiveness of care. Health services faculty
also conduct a broad range of epidemiological studies, economic
evaluations and assessment of the appropriate use of resources in
populations.
Division
of Medical Ethics: This joint division in the Departments
of Medicine and Public Health is responsible for conducting research
in medical ethics and coordinating Weill Cornell's curricular activities
in this area. Areas of scholarship include the integration of ethics
into health services, outcomes and policy research, the ethics of
clinical decision-making, the care of the terminally ill, resource
allocation and health economics, as well as the ethical dimensions
of clinical and basic science research.
Cores: - core groups of faculty across all divisions of the
department with analytic competence in clinical research/epidemiology,
biostatistics, and health economics have been developed. These groups
operate across divisional lines creating a matrix organization within
our Department. Core faculty and resources are available to provide
assistance with the design, conduct and analysis of research and
to export expertise to others on a consulting basis. These methodological
cores enable us to extend our department research agenda and provide
expertise to faculty working elsewhere in the Medical College, Hospital/Network,
outside organizations and industry. Two cores have been established:
In conjunction with the Office of the Senior Associate Dean, the
Department operates the Biostatistics and Research Methodology Core. The core facility provides
assistance to our Weill Medical College investigators in clinical
research methodology and analysis. The Core contains the requisite
expertise and methodological skills for conducting clinical research.
The department offers similar consulting services to outside organizations
and companies via our Cornell
Analytic/Consulting Services unit.
The Future
In summary, the department is committed to serving and collaborating
with Weill Medical College and the NewYork Presbyterian Healthcare
System towards the achievement of our mutual goals of improving
health care quality and cost-effectiveness, strengthening health
promotion, disease prevention and preparing our medical students
for careers in research, medicine and clinical care, and in shaping
the future direction of the health care system.
We invite you to explore our web pages to learn more about our faculty,
staff, educational, clinical and research activities.
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