The Future of Public Health
From age-old threats to emerging hazards: 20 research challenges for the next 10 years.
From today's vantage, it's at once easy and impossible to survey humanity's health needs 10 years from now. Ensuring nourishing food for the hungry, safe water for the thirsty, protection for those threatened by malaria and HIV—these and other familiar challenges persist. Yet a slew of new problems require attention as well: the hazards of nanomaterials, the risks of aquaculture, the specter of epidemics driven by economic development ... . To gauge public health's top research priorities for the new decade, we asked Bloomberg School faculty to tell us about their great challenges and most promising research. The following 20 topics (culled from dozens of responses) may not always surprise, but we think the creative methods being employed to save lives certainly will.