UCI College of Health Sciences

Department of Population Health and Disease Prevention

Message from the Chair

Oladele Ogunseitan, Ph.D., M.P.H. Professor

The mission of the Department of Population Health and Disease Prevention (DPHDP) is to use interdisciplinary approaches in research, education, and community outreach for creating, integrating, and translating population-based knowledge into preventive strategies to reduce the societal burden of human disease and disability. This is a forward-thinking mission that acknowledges and complements, but does not compete with, traditional discipline-based research and training in public health. It is a specific mission that is increasingly recognized by eminent organizations such as the Institute of Medicine’s Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice (formerly known as the Board on Health Promotion and Disease Prevention (HPDP)), by research and education funding institutions such as the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Health & Society Scholar’s Program, and by distinguished Schools of Public Health.

The necessity of, and demand for the research and education accomplishments promised by the department is perhaps best captured, for example, by the rationale for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholars program:

“To increase the array of population-wide interventions, more scholars will need to explore the effects of contextual factors on behavior and biology. A new multidisciplinary field of population health is emerging, and there is a growing demand among government agencies, universities and public health organizations for interdisciplinary collaboration.”

New sources of funding for research and education are emerging, including the translational science initiative of the National Institutes of Health, to support our mission. The societal challenges facing health care and burden of diseases at the national and international levels have increased the demand for experts capable of researching, developing and implementing programs to prevent disease and to improve population health. The Department aims to host activities that bridge disciplinary perspectives, methods, and practices to nurture new leaders in public health.

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