Published 35 years ago, the 1988 Future of Public Health report was a watershed moment that defined the mission and core functions of governmental public health while also describing the “disarray” of the public health system and offering several recommendations for a fundamental course correction.
In addition, the 2002 Future of the Public's Health in the 21st Century report proposed six areas of action for the public health field focused on considering multiple determinants of population health, building intersectoral partnerships, strengthening the governmental public health infrastructure, developing systems of accountability, evidence-based decision making, and acknowledging the role of communications.
While these successes are worth celebrating, AJPH asks what recommendations went unheeded or were met with implementation failure? And equally, if not more importantly, what system recommendations were missing from The Future of Public Health and 21st Century reports that need to be reconciled today?
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