Future of the Public's Health and more: The Institute of Medicine reports on the role of communities

In 2001, the Institute of Medicine convened a committee to describe a framework for assuring the public's health in the new century. The resulting 2003 report, the Future of the Public's Health in the 21st Century, described a public health system where the community (in all its heterogeneity), the governmental public health infrastructure, the health care delivery system, employers, the media, and the academic community work in concert to assure the conditions for assuring population health goals.

The committee's work built on the landmark 1988 IOM report, the Future of Public Health, as well as an earlier series of IOM studies on healthy communities. The committee's work was informed by input from public health leaders and visits to community-based public health projects around the country. A subsequent IOM report focused on the training of public health professionals and commented substantively on the importance of community-based participatory research, responsiveness to community needs, and inclusion of community perspectives and knowledge.

The Future of the Public's Health endorsed the community's integral role as a partner in assuring the public's health. The report's recommendations urged funders of community-based initiatives to focus on achieving long-lasting change, identified areas where local public health agencies should support community-led efforts, and called for increased government funding of population and community-based research.