Is epidemiology popular enough?
IS EPIDEMIOLOGY POPULAR ENOUGH?
In this issue, we have a number of editorial and linked paper contributions that, in one way or another, touch on the ownership of the public health enterprise. Gareth Morgan, arguing from a Welsh perspective, describes the tension between scientific, professionally led, and evidence based public health, and a popular epidemiology developed from the grassroots with small scale local concerns that impact on health and wellbeing. He argues that we need a parallel legacy in popular epidemiology to that which Archie Cochrane has bequeathed us with the evidence based movement. Meanwhile, in Evidence Based Policy and Practice, Crowley and Hunter argue for the need to get the public back into public health if we are to achieve the fully engaged scenario advocated by Sir Derek Wanless in his public health reports to the British government. See pages 254, 265
The vexed issue of individual consent for the use …
