Public Health Reviews journal reborn online with focus on “the new public health”

Dr. Kant Bangdiwala

Dr. Tom Ricketts

Shrikant Bangdiwala, PhD, research professor of biostatistics at UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, has announced to the School the relaunch of the journal, Public Health Reviews. Bangdiwala is a member of the journal’s editorial board and author of an article in the inaugural issue titled “Workforce for Health in Developing Countries.”

Thomas Ricketts, PhD, professor of health policy and management at the School and associate director of UNC’s Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research, is also on the editorial board.

The journal, published in Israel for about 30 years and subsequently out of print for some time, was revitalized in 2008 with the support of Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sante Publique (EHESP) in Rennes, France. Antoine Flahault, MD, PhD, dean of that French public health school, serves as the journal’s editor-in-chief.

In its mission statement, the editorial board expresses its intention to be “agenda-setting, addressing evidence-based policy and best practices, with recommendations for the advancement of the field of public health in Europe and around the world,” with special emphasis on translational issues and interdisciplinary approaches.

The theme of the first issue is “The New Public Health.” As described by Flahault, the new public health is a “strategic and equitable application of current best practices across the broadest aspects of social policy, public health, and health care systems.” It:

• Involves interdependence of traditional local, national and global initiatives and their societal and political contexts;
• Seeks to safeguard and improve individual health in the context of social and economic disparities;
• Implies collaboration among specialists in public health protection, health promotion, disease prevention, health maintenance and environmental health; and
• Relies on programs and policies targeted to individuals, to groups at special risk, to communities and to societies around the world.

Bangdiwala is excited about the journal’s potential.

The entire first issue of the international publication is now available online at www.publichealthreviews.eu, free of charge.

UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health contact: Ramona DuBose, director of communications, (919) 966-7467 or ramona_dubose@unc.edu.