The Epidemiology Program promotes the use of scientific knowledge about health and disease in populations to effectively carry out public health assessment, policy development and assurance.
Epidemiology is the science of public health.
Public health assessment and epidemiological analysis are the cornerstones of public health action and decision making . Program planning, management, and evaluation activities are dependent upon public health surveillance and data systems. These systems require epidemiological capacity for data collection, analysis, interpretation and dissemination. Epidemiology services are also essential for response to communicable disease outbreaks, environmental emergencies, and reported clusters of disease. Finally, epidemiological capacity is crucial to the public health role in community health planning and policy development.