Medicine and Public Health in Jacksonville: A History of Collaboration

The recent dedication of public health facilities and the revelation of artifacts documenting the history of public health and medicine focus attention on Jacksonville's unique history of collaboration between medi- cine and public health. Both the medical and public health communities can share pride in this leadership. (See Tables 2 & 3 at dcmsonline.org under current NEFM journal) Modern medicine and public health had similar origins in the 19th century and early 20th century but rapidly evolved with major distinctions in their training, practice and research through most of the 20 century. They both played a major role in the early development of the city of Jacksonville and the Northeast region of the state, but that history also provides rich insights into how public health emerged in the state of Florida through extensive involvement and support from the medical community. While the separation of medicine and public health has been lamented throughout much of the country, collaboration between medicine and public health in Florida continues to emerge and has been recognized as a national model. Recent developments flowing from this collaboration show great promise to benefit the institutions of both public health and medicine, particularly in Jacksonville. The history of medicine and public health in Jacksonville, Florida provides rich insights into the evolution of the practice of modern medicine and public health in the United States. Although both can trace their origins to antiquity, modern medicine has its origins in the development of the anesthesia and germ theory in the mid 19th century and the reforms of medical education following the Flexner Report in the early 20th century. Modern public health had a similar historical time frame with the urban sanitation movement and the early applications of epidemiology by John Snow in the mid 19th century. Formal education for public health also began early in the 20th century. Abraham Flexner had a major leadership