PHIG – Public Health Interest Group

Officers

President Megan Horwitz
Treasurer Hannah Rains
Faculty Advisor Dr. Sonja A. Rasmussen

PHIG LogoWelcome to the Public Health Interest Group!

The Public Health Interest Group is established for the purpose of exposing students to the field of public health by providing them with educational opportunities to learn practical ways of integrating fundamentally important concepts of population and public health into their practice. The Public Health Interest Group aims to help students explore community medicine as a career option and provide them with networking opportunities with leaders in the field so they can develop leadership and teamwork skills.

 

What is Public Health?

Public Health is the science of preventing disease and injury before it occurs. Public health involves interdisciplinary teams working together on a local or global scale to improve the health of the communities they serve. According to the CDC, public health is defined as the science of protecting and improving the health of people and their communities. Any act, large or small, that promotes improved health practices is considered public health. Public health promotes living healthy lifestyles, preventing injury, and researching diseases. In addition, a public health perspective views the patient holistically and looks beyond just a patient’s symptoms, but rather public health emphasizes the role that socioeconomic status plays in that patient’s health. In short, public health looks for problems, diseases, risks facing a given community and strives to prevent these risks, and in doing so, promotes better health for everyone in that community.

Instagram Group

Instagram:@ufcom_phig

Other Resources

1. Local Global Health Equity Track: https://globalhealth.med.ufl.edu/global-health-electives/global-health-track/

2. 10 Essentials of Public Health: https://www.cdc.gov/publichealthgateway/publichealthservices/essentialhealthservices.html

3. Integrating Public Health and Primary Care: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24851288/

4. Public Health and Clinical Care Integration: https://www.cdc.gov/publichealthgateway/program/resources/public.html

5. Public Health at UF: https://phhp.ufl.edu/outreach/

References

  1. https://www.cdcfoundation.org/what-public-health