Are we there yet? Seizing the moment to integrate medicine and public health.

Abstract

Multiple promising but unsustainable attempts have been made to maintain programs integrating primary care and public health since the middle of the last century. During the 1960s, social justice movements expanded access to primary care and began to integrate primary care with public health concepts both to meet community needs for medical care and to begin to address the social determinants of health. Two decades later, the managed care movement offered opportunities for integration of primary care and public health as many employers and government payers attempted to control health costs and bring disease prevention strategies in line with payment mechanisms. Today, we again have the opportunity to align primary care with public health to improve the community's health.