People-centered public health

People-centered public health is an approach to public health that adheres to the principles of Person Centered Medicine and Health. It builds from this base to engage and co-create fundamental public health perspectives aimed at addressing Universal Health Coverage, Primary Health Care, Social Determinants of Health, Sustainable Development Goals, and the Essential Public Health Functions and Services. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted shortcomings of our current global public health system reflecting inadequate, uncoordinated, and non-participative national policies and lack of international collaboration, solidarity, and resources. Beyond this pandemic, countries are facing new epidemics of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and mental health problems while old infectious epidemics like tuberculosis regain terrain quickly as poverty is rising and epidemiological vigilance is laxed and uneven. A dynamic public health system is needed that can engage and understand the people it serves and react timely and effectively to tackle current as well as future emergent health problems while keeping a continuous focus on health restoration and promotion and well-being for all. The challenge of public health is to reach all population groups including the most vulnerable through an approach that places persons and people at the core of any intervention. This chapter first describes the definitions and roles of public health in general. Secondly, it presents and deals with public health within the perspective of Person Centered Medicine. Then, it presents other important current topics in public health such as Essential Public Health Functions, Essential Public Health Services, and International Health Regulations. Furthermore, it lists several public health considerations particularly relevant to the current COVID-19 pandemic. The important connections among Person Centered Medicine, Social Determinants of Health, Sustainable Development Goals, and Essential Public Health Functions and Services are highlighted. The conclusions emphasize the value of seeing public health through the lens of person- and people centered care, paying attention not only to global and national policies but also to the role of persons and communities, all of whom are to be empowered to be coproducers of their own health, as to enable effective answers to future pandemics and similar disasters.