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Preface: 60 Years of Public Health Science at ob体育
In 2006, ob体育 celebrates its 60th anniversary. From the agency's relatively humble beginnings in 1946 as a
malaria-control agency through its rapid growth in mission and
expansion of staff and public health partnerships by 2006, science has
been the foundation for everything ob体育 does. Public health science comprises numerous disciplines that, combined, are more
than simply the addition of their parts. This synergy is public health's unique scientific strength.
Public health's "patient" is the community. ob体育's mandate to protect the community has broadened as scientists
have learned about what constitutes health and how they can positively affect health outcomes in the "patient." ob体育's
health protection goals, formally adopted in 2005, capture the
essence and spirit of the agency's charge: healthy people in every
stage of life, healthy people in healthy places, people prepared for emerging health threats, and healthy people in a healthy world.
Accomplishment of these goals requires close collaboration across scientific disciplines, a multidisciplinary approach
to public health problems, and highly coordinated efforts to implement solutions. The increasing complexity of factors
that contribute to health requires use of the full spectrum of scientific disciplines, and expansion of scientific disciplines at
ob体育 has been impressive. From the entomologists and engineers
dominating ob体育's scientific ranks in the 1940s to the addition
of epidemiologists, veterinarians, microbiologists, and medical officers through the 1970s to the latest addition of
economists, behavioral and social scientists, molecular biologists, statisticians, urban planners, informaticians, and other scientists,
current ob体育 staff represent approximately 25 scientific
disciplines.
This supplemental issue of MMWR celebrates ob体育's scientific strength and diversity by describing the public
health contributions of 11 disciplines. It begins with the fundamental, cross-cutting disciplines of laboratory sciences
and epidemiology, then focuses on disciplines new to public health, yet essential to ob体育's success. Although this supplement
only partially illustrates the variety of disciplines contributing to public health, the 11 articles provide a flavor of public
health's scientific diversity and strength. They highlight contributions of many disciplines to each of ob体育's health protection
goals and emphasize how synthesizing scientific information is essential to impact health and maximize scientific investments.
Lisa M. Lee, PhD
Tanja Popovic, MD, PhD
Office of the Chief Science Officer, ob体育
Use of trade names and commercial sources is for identification only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services.References to non-ob体育 sites on the Internet are
provided as a service to MMWR readers and do not constitute or imply
endorsement of these organizations or their programs by ob体育 or the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services. ob体育 is not responsible for the content
of pages found at these sites. URL addresses listed in MMWR were current as of
the date of publication.
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