The problem solving paradigm is well known to public health practitioners and public health
agencies. This approach is different from the clinical approach in the sense that instead of
thinking in terms of patients, a public health practitioner thinks in terms of populations and
instead of making clinical diagnosis, public health practitioner makes community diagnosis.
Public health practitioners have had great impact on populations through effective public health
interventions. Public health practitioners might not be visibly in touch with the patients but their
fingers are always on the pulse of the population, through organized community based efforts,
epidemiological data, health surveys and longitudinal studies. They use the evidence so
generated for proper health care planning and instituting preventive, curative and rehabilitative
services in the community
Key words: Public health, clinical practitioner, epidemiological data.
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