Editorial. Making healthy communities

Making Healthy CommunitiesPublic health, with the emphasis on public, encompasses but goes beyond the traditional medical emphasis on prevention, detection, and cure."Public" suggests that the power to make health rests not only with a medical elite, but with people from all backgrounds and walks of life, both as individuals and as members of communities.It also suggests that public assets, such as education, work, housing, and transportation, enhance community life and well-being.Studies confirm that secure income, higher educational levels, quality housing, and social cohesionareas in which medicine has traditionally had little input-translate into improved health.The quality of the public's general health depends on the accessibility and quality of our public assets, the way that people live, work, learn, grow, struggle, and play together.This idea of interconnectedness among individuals, communities, and public assets forms the foundation of the Healthy Communities movement.