The Current Situation and Challenges Surrounding Public Health and Social Medicine Researchers

<p>【Objectives】Recent medical and health care issues need specialist views and solutions. We conducted two specific studies focusing on education and human resource development in public health and social medicine as a field in health care science.</p><p>【Methods】In quantitative research, we investigated college catalogues to find out how the names of departments and the number of faculty members in the public health and social medicine field have changed over the last twenty years. In qualitative research, we conducted interviews with researchers and professors in the field.</p><p>【Results】While the number of faculty members in the field has not changed, the rate of these members among the medical schools declined from 3.0 ％ to 2.1 ％ . As for interviews, it was expected that the system of board-certified physicians for public health is inaugurated, whereas, lack of a standard curriculum and textbooks in public health and social medicine education, and of career path.</p><p>【Conclusion】As a result of both quantitative and qualitative analysis, we extracted three major challenges: 1）introducing the system of certified physicians for public health and public health and social medicine to improve qualification of experts and facilitate young researchers and practitioners to address new problems; 2）strengthening measures to educate young students about potentials of public health and social medicine and encourage them to pursue the field; 3）overcoming the disconnect between practitioners and research and education in public health and social medicine by introducing the use of big data and the framework of global health.</p>