College of Medicine

What accounted for success stories in America’s health over the past half-century? Was it research breakthroughs? Public Health interventions? Medical Care? YES!  It was all of the above, according to analyses by Center for Medicine and Public Health Director, Dr. George Rust, published in an article titled Triangulating on Success in the American Journal of Public Health . Seven of the nine “leading causes of death” for which mortality rates dropped by at least 50% during the years 1950-2000 required all three elements – research breakthroughs, public health interventions, and individual patient care. Said Dr. Rust, “Too often, the competition for resources leads us to work more in parallel than in partnership. How much more could we accomplish together, if research and public health and clinical care sectors all worked consciously, collaboratively, and proactively in partnership for America’s health?”