University of Virginia Health System

Mission and Background

Mission

The Department of Public Health Sciences focuses its energies, expertise and collaborations on improving the health and well being of individuals and populations. By assembling multidisciplinary teams that combine expertise from biostatistics, clinical epidemiology, informatics and public health in collaboration with  clinicians and scientists, we  create new approaches and technologies for the generation, analysis, interpretation and management of basic and health-related data.  These efforts are intended to assist individuals, clinicians, communities and public health policymakers in making informed, wise, equitable and cost effective choices.

The Department of Public Health Sciences was originally established in 1995 as the Department of Health Evaluation Sciences.

The department was created to provide comprehensive and multidisciplinary scientific & analytical services to the University of Virginia Health System as well as other components of the University.

The new name was adopted in 2005 to reflect its new emphasis on public health education, training and service.DPHS is devoted to the discovery of new approaches and research strategies for health promotion and preservation, disease prevention, diagnosis and treatment, as well as the development of  contemporary tools in genetic risk assessment, medical decision making, biostatistical and epidemiologic methods, and medical service delivery for individuals and populations.

The department focuses its endeavors on enabling clinicians, researchers, administrators and others to more precisely evaluate the efficacy of existing medical care and health improvement practices, and to more accurately test new approaches to the treatment of disease and delivery of health services.