The FSU-COM Center for Medicine and Public Health Policy & Practice is dedicated to bridging the historic divide between the fields of medicine and public health. Both medicine and public health embrace a shared value of preventing and alleviating human suffering. We focus on the continuum of prevention (from primary prevention to secondary and tertiary prevention), including programs and policies affecting individuals, the community, and the entire population. Through research, program evaluation, residency training, medical education, health policy, partnerships with public health agencies, and service, the Center for Medicine and Public Health Policy & Practice promotes more optimal and equitable health outcomes for all.
Research: Our research focuses on optimizing population health outcomes, using the tools of epidemiology and health services research to evaluate programs, policies and potential interventions.
Training and Service: The Center houses the FSU COM relationship with state and local public health departments. The Center also leads various teaching activities, including epidemiology / biostatistics and public health segments of the COM core curriculum plus residency rotations in public health. We will work with the MPH program to build elective courses (e.g., Population Medicine, Maternal-Child Health, etc), certificate programs, and/or an MD/MPH degree program. A long-term goal will be to build a Preventive Medicine residency program, as well as PhD programs or post-doctoral fellowships in health services / health policy research. The Center may also support FSU_Health in outcomes-driven population health management.
Dr. David Satcher (16th US Surgeon General, former CDC Director, & founding Director of the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at Morehouse School of Medicine) speaks of the importance of medicine in public health in this video clip of an interview conducted before his March 2016 FSU-COM Grand Rounds presentation on the topic, "The Journey From Health Disparities to Health Equity". See more of his interview with Dr. George Rust and Dr. Joedrecka Brown-Speights on the connections between health equity, community health, social determinants, medicine, and public health . . .
CMPHPP 2025 FSU College of Medicine Summer Research Fellows
This fellowship provides students with opportunities, encouragement, and support in research endeavors. Both students will be conducting research over the summer and will…
Reliable Information about Measles Outbreaks
George Rust, M.D., offers expert insights in recent interviews, emphasizing the serious risks of measles and the critical importance of maintaining high community immunization…
Site Visit for Evaluation of Opioid Prevention Activities in Duval County, FL
In September of 2024, CMPHPP members Dr. Samantha Goldfarb and Jessica Day conducted a site visit in Jacksonville, Florida where they met with the Overdose Data to Action:…
State Variations In Progress Toward Eliminating Disparities In Infant Mortality, 2007–19
Progress toward eliminating the Black-White disparity in US infant mortality rates has been slow and highly variable by state. Among thirty-two eligible states, eight had an…
Center Supports Hurricane Response
The Center’s relationship with Florida’s Department of Health provides medical director support to six local county public health departments year-round. When hurricanes…
George Rust and others share wisdom during the TLH COVID-19 outbreak
Dr. George Rust, Professor at the FSU College of Medicine, Department of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Director of FSU's Center for Medicine and Public Health,…
Dr German Jimenez
In the state of Olancho in Central Honduras, Dr. German Jimenez is a living example of integrating medicine and public health.
Hot-Spotting Chronic Disease
In 1854, John Snow helped end a cholera epidemic by mapping the disease outbreak, identifying its source, and convincing community leaders to intervene by disabling a…
Triangulating on Success -- Research, Public Health, & Medicine
What accounted for success stories in America’s health over the past half-century? Was it research breakthroughs? Public Health interventions? Medical Care?
- Video Lecture: The Harmonies of Primary Care & Community Health -- Five Levels of Integration (George Rust)
- Costich et al: Population health, public health, and accountable care: emerging roles and relationships
- IOM Report: Primary Care & Public Health
- Rust, Satcher et al: Triangulating on Success (American Journal of Public Health)