Health professionals are accustomed to treating patients for illness instead of focusing on how to prevent disease in the first place. Also, they’re trained to help that one patient, rather than to look at which other patients are experiencing the same issue, and what commonalties exist in lifestyle, living conditions or environment.

But the growing number of people living with multiple chronic conditions, such as arthritis, cancer and diabetes, are forcing the health-care system to change.

The Dalla Lana School’s vision to integrate public health and primary care aims to enable physicians, public health experts and allied health professionals to provide more holistic care that heals both the individual patient and addresses the health issue within the greater community.