Defining Clinical Public Health.

PURPOSE: To solve complex health issues, an innovative and multidisciplinary framework is necessary. The Clinical Public Health (CPH) Division was established at the University of Toronto (UofT), Canada to foster inte-gration of primary care, preventive medicine and public health in education, practice and research. To better understand how the construct of CPH might be applied, we surveyed clinicians, researchers and public health professionals affiliated with the CPH Division to assess their understanding of the CPH concept and its utility in fostering broad collaboration. METHODS: A two-wave anonymous survey of the active faculty of the CPH Division, UofT was conducted across Canada. Wave 1 participants (n = 187; 2016) were asked to define CPH, while Wave 2 participants (n = 192; 2017) were provided a synthesis of Wave 1 results and asked to rank each definition. Both waves were asked about the need for a common definition, and to comment on CPH. RESULTS: Response rates for the first and second waves were 25% and 22%, respectively. Of the six definitions of CPH from Wave 1, "the intersection of clinical practice and public health," was most highly ranked by Wave 2 participants. Positive perceptions of CPH included multidisciplinary collaboration, new fields and insights, forward thinking and innovation. Negative perceptions included CPH being a confusing term, too narrow in scope or too clinical. CONCLUSION: The concept of Clinical Public Health can foster multidisciplinary collaboration to address com-plex health issues because it provides a useful framework for bringing together key disciplines and diverse professional specialties.

Evaluation of a pilot arts and health module in a graduate community nutrition program.

Several health disciplines have incorporated the arts into professional education programs; however, little work has been done in the field of dietetics. A pilot arts module was implemented as part of a graduate education program in community nutrition. The course instructor developed a structured, open-ended questionnaire, which was administered to participating students before the educational module. The same students completed a similar questionnaire at the end of the module. Responses were compared and analyzed thematically so that changes could be noted in perspectives on the arts and health upon module completion. Findings suggested that students' understanding of "art" and "science" changed during the module, that they recognized benefits of incorporating the arts into community nutrition practice, and that they could identify resources that would support their efforts to do so. The positive student responses to this pilot project support the further development of arts initiatives within dietetic education.