“Are population and public health truly a
unified field, or is population health simply
attaching itself to public health as a
means of gaining credibility?”
This commentary was prompted by the
above question, which was asked during
K. L.’s PhD candidacy exam. In response,
K. L. cited recent developments in the
field to support her conviction that population
and public health (PPH) existed
positively as a unified discipline. However,
through conversations that ensued over
the subsequent weeks and months, we
concluded that this issue goes deeper than
the existence of departments and organizations
labelled “population and public
health,” and may benefit from debate and
discussion, particularly for the incoming
generation of PPH scholars. In this commentary,
we argue that (1) the PPH label
at times implies a coherence of ideas, values
and priorities that may not be present;
(2) it is important and timely to work
towards a more unified PPH; and (3) both
challenges to and opportunities for a more
unified PPH exist, which we illustrate
using the broad areas of research funding,
the public health workforce and PPH
ethics.