Overview
The Clinical Prevention and Population Health Curriculum Framework (Framework) is a national resource developed by the Healthy People Curriculum Task Force (Task Force), which is convened by the Association for Prevention Teaching and Research (APTR). The Framework is designed to guide integration of prevention and population health content into health professions education. It provides a common core of knowledge for clinical health professions around individual and population‐oriented prevention and health promotion and supports alignment of curricula with accreditation requirements and other educational standards.
The Framework serves as both a curriculum guide and an organizing tool to facilitate consistency across health professions programs while allowing for flexibility in how content is adapted to the needs of different disciplines. It provides:
Healthy People Curriculum Task Force
The Healthy People Curriculum Task Force (Task Force), an interprofessional body established by APTR in 2002, developed the Framework and formally updates it through a five-year review and revision process. The Task Force was originally convened to support a Healthy People 2010 objective that aimed at increasing the inclusion of core clinical prevention and population health content in health professions training. Over the past two decades, the Framework has shaped curricula, informed curricular guidance documents, and influenced accreditation standards across health disciplines.
Learn more about the Framework revision process and history
The Clinical Prevention and Population Health Curriculum Framework (Framework) is a national resource developed by the Healthy People Curriculum Task Force (Task Force), which is convened by the Association for Prevention Teaching and Research (APTR). The Framework is designed to guide integration of prevention and population health content into health professions education. It provides a common core of knowledge for clinical health professions around individual and population‐oriented prevention and health promotion and supports alignment of curricula with accreditation requirements and other educational standards.
The Framework serves as both a curriculum guide and an organizing tool to facilitate consistency across health professions programs while allowing for flexibility in how content is adapted to the needs of different disciplines. It provides:
- A content outline compatible with a range of learning outcomes and competencies.
- A structure for organizing, monitoring, and evaluating curricula across health disciplines.
- A resource to promote interdisciplinary collaboration within and among health professions.
Healthy People Curriculum Task Force
The Healthy People Curriculum Task Force (Task Force), an interprofessional body established by APTR in 2002, developed the Framework and formally updates it through a five-year review and revision process. The Task Force was originally convened to support a Healthy People 2010 objective that aimed at increasing the inclusion of core clinical prevention and population health content in health professions training. Over the past two decades, the Framework has shaped curricula, informed curricular guidance documents, and influenced accreditation standards across health disciplines.
Learn more about the Framework revision process and history
Rationale
Improving health and achieving the nation’s Healthy People objectives calls on health professionals to understand and apply the principles of prevention and population health throughout their education and practice. [1] [2] Integrating this content early in their education better prepares health professionals to share responsibility for patient populations and address emerging health challenges.
This effort requires a dual focus on clinical prevention, the delivery of evidence-based services to individuals in health care settings, [3] and population health, the improvement of health outcomes and their distribution across groups. [4] Preparation for this work is strengthened by education grounded in the core functions of public health, the collective societal effort to ensure the conditions in which all people can be healthy. [5]
Teaching and learning in prevention and population health are enhanced through an interprofessional education approach, as these efforts rely on collaboration across professions. Interprofessional education occurs when learners from two or more health professions learn with, from, and about each other to support collaborative practice and improve health outcomes. [6]
The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need for effective interprofessional collaboration and the critical role of health professionals in advancing public health and implementing effective prevention strategies. It also exposed systemic vulnerabilities, underscoring the urgency of addressing the social, environmental, and systemic factors that shape health outcomes.
To build a more effective and sustainable health care system, the health workforce must be equipped with the knowledge and skills to:
Improving health and achieving the nation’s Healthy People objectives calls on health professionals to understand and apply the principles of prevention and population health throughout their education and practice. [1] [2] Integrating this content early in their education better prepares health professionals to share responsibility for patient populations and address emerging health challenges.
This effort requires a dual focus on clinical prevention, the delivery of evidence-based services to individuals in health care settings, [3] and population health, the improvement of health outcomes and their distribution across groups. [4] Preparation for this work is strengthened by education grounded in the core functions of public health, the collective societal effort to ensure the conditions in which all people can be healthy. [5]
Teaching and learning in prevention and population health are enhanced through an interprofessional education approach, as these efforts rely on collaboration across professions. Interprofessional education occurs when learners from two or more health professions learn with, from, and about each other to support collaborative practice and improve health outcomes. [6]
The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need for effective interprofessional collaboration and the critical role of health professionals in advancing public health and implementing effective prevention strategies. It also exposed systemic vulnerabilities, underscoring the urgency of addressing the social, environmental, and systemic factors that shape health outcomes.
To build a more effective and sustainable health care system, the health workforce must be equipped with the knowledge and skills to:
- Apply evidence-based population health principles to improve outcomes at both the individual and community levels.
- Collaborate within interprofessional teams to promote health, prevent disease and injury, and enhance public health crisis preparedness and response.
- Engage with public health systems through practice-based contributions that support data-informed policy and decision-making.
- Adapt to evolving public health challenges and threats.
Curriculum Recommendations
To promote consistency and strengthen integration across health professions, it is recommended that all programs adopt the term “Clinical Prevention and Population Health” when referring to this subject area in the curriculum.
The Framework is designed to be applicable across a broad range of health professions. It is also relevant for health-related disciplines such as social work, health informatics, health law, and environmental engineering.[7] To advance the integration of clinical prevention and population health into health professions education, the Task Force recommends that all health professions education programs:
To promote consistency and strengthen integration across health professions, it is recommended that all programs adopt the term “Clinical Prevention and Population Health” when referring to this subject area in the curriculum.
The Framework is designed to be applicable across a broad range of health professions. It is also relevant for health-related disciplines such as social work, health informatics, health law, and environmental engineering.[7] To advance the integration of clinical prevention and population health into health professions education, the Task Force recommends that all health professions education programs:
- Embed clinical prevention and population health content throughout the curriculum, to ensure learners develop a solid foundation in disease prevention, health promotion, and public health principles.
- Align standardized exams, certification criteria, and accreditation standards with appropriate domains and topic areas of the Framework to ensure population health competencies are clearly defined and consistently evaluated.
- Assess student competency in interprofessional collaborative practice, ensuring learners can effectively apply population health principles within collaborative, diverse care settings.
- Enhance interprofessional educational experiences by incorporating cross-disciplinary training that fosters collaboration among medical, public health, behavioral health, and social services professionals.
- Incorporate digital health innovations including telehealth, informatics, artificial intelligence, and predictive analytics, into coursework and experiential learning.
- Adopt diverse, evidence-based teaching methodologies, such as service-learning, case-based and problem-based learning, and simulation training.
Measuring Curricular Integration
The Task Force collects and analyzes data to track the inclusion of clinical prevention and population health content in health professions education. As of the release of this Framework, the data is also used to evaluate progress toward five Education and Community Based Programs (ECBP) objectives in Healthy People 2030.
Over the past two decades, Task Force data collection has revealed broad inclusion of certain topics such as counseling for behavior change and evaluation of health sciences literature, while exposing persistent gaps in areas like environmental health, global health, and public health systems. Trends in inclusion have fluctuated over time, reinforcing the importance of continued monitoring and the need for ongoing curricular integration.
Learn more about the Task Force data collection efforts
Over the past two decades, Task Force data collection has revealed broad inclusion of certain topics such as counseling for behavior change and evaluation of health sciences literature, while exposing persistent gaps in areas like environmental health, global health, and public health systems. Trends in inclusion have fluctuated over time, reinforcing the importance of continued monitoring and the need for ongoing curricular integration.
Learn more about the Task Force data collection efforts
[1] Institute of Medicine. (2003). Who will keep the public healthy? Educating public health professionals for the 21st century. The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/10542
[2] Allan, J., Barwick, T. A., Cashman, S., Cawley, J. F., Day, C., Meyer, S. M., ... & Riegelman, R. K. (2004). Clinical prevention and population health: Curriculum framework for health professions. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 27(5), 471–476. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2004.08.010
[3] Garr, D. R., Lackland, D. T., & Wilson, D. B. (2000). Prevention education and evaluation in U.S. medical schools: A status report. Academic Medicine, 75(7), S14–S21. https://doi.org/10.1097/00001888-200007001-00003
[4] Kindig, D., & Stoddart, G. (2003). What is population health? American Journal of Public Health, 93(3), 380–383. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.93.3.380
[5] Institute of Medicine. (2003). The future of the public's health in the 21st century. The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/10548
[6] Interprofessional Education Collaborative. (2023). IPEC core competencies for interprofessional collaborative practice: Version 3. https://www.ipecollaborative.org/core-competencies
[7] Caron, R. M., Neeley, S., Eldredge, C., Goodman, A. C., Oerther, D. B., Satz, A. B., Whitehead, D. M., & Brice, T. S. (2023). Health in all education: A transdisciplinary learning outcomes framework. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 64(5), 772–779. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2022.12.001.
