Closing the Gap

Welcome!  This blog will cover my intellectual journey through the many layers of public health.  My name is Anna Wherry, and this journey begins as a freshman at Johns Hopkins University.

As a college student, I am frequently asked the classic question, “What’s your major?”  Whether asked by an adult or a fellow student, the reaction to my response is usually the same: How did you become interested? What exactly is public health? 

The answers to these questions are not so simple.  

Public health first captured my interest here in Baltimore.  It was the summer between my sophomore and junior year in high school.  Insisting I not waste the summer in our comfortable suburban neighborhood, my mom dragged me to the uncomfortable world of East Baltimore.  

My task was daunting: to survey refugee patients at a local community health center.  Concerned about cultural and language barriers, I approached the opportunity apprehensively.  

But, I was also excited.  I thought people who had experienced health care in developing counties could provide me with a window for evaluating health care in this country.  During the surveys, it was startling to hear that some refugees thought they received the same or better quality health care in their home country. The basis of this perception may lie with their definition of quality health care. To them, quality was a matter of simplicity, accessibility, and affordability.  Once in the United States, refugees face the same healthcare barriers as we do.

Talking with refugees also gave me insight into their cultural views of healthcare.  These views had an obvious influence over their perception of westernized health and made me realize the importance of cultural dialogue in healthcare.  

At the time, I couldn’t come up with a logical explanation for these findings from the survey on my own, but realized I could come to understand them through studying public health.  

I am just beginning to fully grasp its complex layers -- which include public policy, medicine, environment, and philanthropy -- through my Intro to Public Health class.  I am learning that public health is a broad term.  This term isn’t always understood by communities, yet these people are exactly who public health effects.  

It is a discipline dedicated to the health of the public as a whole.  This is how public health differs from traditional medicine.  Doctors treat individual patients.  Public health officials strive to improve living qualities and the health of an entire population.  They focus on preventive measures, including health education, policy initiatives, sanitation, and structural and environmental changes.  

Because preventive measures usually aren’t enough (people are bound to get sick), public health officials also work to increase access to medical care.  For people like the refugee patients, this means all the difference.  They defined quality care to me using terms such as “easy” and “cheap”; their concerns were accessibility and affordability rather than quality.  Public health addresses these concerns to make sure that even newly arrived refugees have access to quality care. 

From discussions with refugees to lectures in class, I have come to realize the cause that I am dedicating my life to: closing the gap! 

Anna