All things medicine are public health but not all things public health are medicine. And as a public health major who is pursuing a career in medicine it is often difficult to draw the line between what is medicine and what is public health. Often during my course work it has been a challenge to understand that public health doesn’t always pertain to the clinical aspects of medicine, but rather all things that can possibly affect the overall health of our society. The class within the public health major that really made this clear to me was Epidemiology 410 with Dr. Kathy Dhotre. Dr. Dhotre was previously employed by the center of disease control as an epidemiologist where she worked on a broad range of projects, from mental health to cancer treatment. In Dr. Dhotre’s class we would often have guest speakers who were professionals in the field of epidemiology come into class and give a guest lecture on their area of expertise. I specifically recall one guest speaker who was employed by the SC Department of Health and Environmental Control who came in and spoke to us about data mapping. The guest lecturer spoke to us about how epidemiologists and public health professionals can use health related data and overlay that on a map in order to estimate some of the determinants and factors affecting health in that specific location. This has virtually nothing to do with clinical medicine, and this was one of the first times as a public health student where I could see a clear difference and understand just how valuable public health was in the realm of clinical medicine. The guest speaker went on to show some examples of famous data mapping, and as every public health student can probably guess, John Snow was one of these examples.

 

John Snow was a physician and epidemiologist in London in the mid 1800’s. He is credited as the father of epidemiology as well as for groundbreaking discoveries in the field of anesthesia. John Snow is perhaps most famous for his work in uncovering the source of a cholera outbreak in Soho, London in 1854. John Snow used an early, arbitrary form of data mapping in order to visualize the spread of this disease in Soho. He was able to track the source of the cholera outbreak to one water well, that a large majority of the cholera patients had claimed to have drank from. In my research on the affordability and accessibility of healthy meals, my partner Austin, and I traveled to Soho, London to visit the site of this historic discovery. It amazed me that more than 140 years ago, on the ground I was standing on such a seemingly simple, yet brilliant discovery could have been made. The site where the famous water pump once stood is marked with a plaque, and a replica of the data map that John Snow had created.