Public Health Monitoring: An Active Phrase for Vigilance, Warning, Guidance, and Accountability
Year: 2024
Type: editorial
Abstract: udos to AJPH for calling the long overdue question: Should the field of public health use "public health monitoring" instead of "public health surveillance" or even "public health data"?" 1(p662) Tellingly, "public health monitoring" leads the list, as it shoulda term to be preferred, because it uniquely encompasses people, technology, and systems and actively connotes vigilance, warning, guidance, and accountability.In 2023, Kassler and Bowman cogently argued in their essay "Overcoming Public Health 'Surveillance': When Words Matter" that the field of public health needs to drop the phrase "surveillance,"given its deep links to state and corporate efforts to collect data to control people as political subjects and as consumers.2 Reminding readers of the etymology of "surveillance"-as "derived from the French roots sur (over) and veiller (to watch)" 2(p1102)they called for a reframing of "public health surveillance" so that it prioritizes "protecting data privacy and restoring
Author: Nancy Krieger
Institution: Harvard University
Language: English
Subfield: Epidemiology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4403053538