Faculty Profiles

Yuanli Liu
Heather Nelson
Stephen Buka
Barbara Burleigh
Eric Rimm
Karen Kuntz

Department &
Center Highlights

Annual Report Home

The convergence of disease burdens parallels a convergence of policy issues between industrialized and developing countries. Drug and health care costs are increasing worldwide. Huge disparities persist within and between countries in terms of access to essential medicines, prenatal care, vaccines, and other basic interventions. Public health and clinical medicine--prevention and treatment--must come together along an interactive, integrated continuum, rather than operating in isolated silos of public-health professionals, doctors, hospitals, HMOs, and insurers. Meaningful improvements in health care delivery cannot be achieved by tinkering at the margins of our systems. Informed by thoughtful research, experimentation in health systems is essential, as we have begun to see in some U.S. states and in nations such as China and India, where School faculty are playing innovative roles.

The major risks to health arise not just from environmental or biological causes, but also from behavioral ones. Fully half of all deaths globally could be prevented or delayed through behavioral changes, including smoking cessation, exercise, dietary modifications, and safer sexual practices, as School scientists and their international collaborators reported in 2003. Addiction to tobacco remains a leading cause of death and disease worldwide, even as we mark in 2004 the 40th anniversary of the U.S. Surgeon General's report on the link between tobacco and cancer.

If we hope to thwart the epidemics of the 21st century, we must find better ways of helping people change their unhealthy habits. We must recognize that health is not simply an individual responsibility, but is enormously influenced by societal and cultural forces--including poverty and socioeconomic status; education; advertising and the media; and racial or ethnic heritage. It is a huge challenge to inspire children and people at risk to change unhealthy behaviors. This mission informs research and teaching throughout the School, particularly within our new Department of Society, Human Development, and Health, where faculty are exploring the social determinants of health throughout the life cycle, from infancy to old age.

One of our School's greatest contributions to the future of public health will be to train and equip leaders to address issues that place the heaviest burdens on the world's populations. Currently we are privileged to have enrolled in master's and doctoral programs 1,104 students from the U.S. and 67 other countries whose accomplishments and aspirations are truly inspiring. Among our alumni are six past directors of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the past Director-General of the World Health Organization. More than 9,500 of our graduates are now at work in 91 countries and every state of the U.S. In view of the University's new commitment to a major Initiative for Global Health, one of our priorities is to seek increased resources, so that we might enable more of the best students to study with us--particularly overseas students whose home countries are in urgent need of the leadership and expertise training we can provide.

Training the next generation of leaders raises significant questions. How should we revamp our curriculum for the future? What new programs do we need? Should all master's candidates take courses in genetics or communication? How might we inspire Harvard undergraduates' interest in public health, to draw more of these bright minds to the big issues in the field? In 2003, such questioning led us to create, with Harvard Law School, a three-year joint degree in Public Health and Law to deepen the understanding among both lawyers and public health professionals of public-health issues involving legislation and litigation.

Another major contribution the School must make is to address public health dilemmas from multiple academic perspectives. Within the School, about a third of our faculty is dedicated to bringing the frontiers of the basic sciences to bear upon the public health problems of global infectious diseases and environmental, occupational, and nutritional causes of illness. Another one-third is engaged in population science--namely, bringing epidemiology and biostatistics to the table, working with colleagues to design experiments and clinical trials, analyze results, and assess risks and benefits of health interventions. Recognizing that not every public health problem stems from a germ, toxin, or bad gene, another third of our faculty is concerned with social science aspects of public health. Some, for example, are analyzing the impact of social determinants of ill health, such as poverty, racism, and violence. Others are examining health policy, looking at how the political, legislative, and economic realities influence how well health care systems work--or fail--in the U.S. and abroad.

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