Policy Sectors and Professions: The Institutional Foundations of Activist Public Health Policy

In many countries, health systems have developed impressive levels of medical care and organizational complexity, providing treatment of a broad range of conditions for the vast majority of citizens and arresting the attention of academic observers, politicians, and the general public. But the health care system has an older step-sister that is much less in the public eye, much poorer both in resources and reputation, and more often concerned with lackluster tasks such as hygiene, immunization, or telling people to clean their teeth or cut back on drinking and smoking. It is to Philipp Trein’s credit that he calls our attention to public health, the older step-sister of clinical medicine and presents this study of the development and relationship between the two, pointing out the significant difference between individualistic, curative health care and collectivist, population-oriented public health.