Medical schools and public health departments: a new alliance for progress.

For some time there has been concern regarding the future and relevance of both public health departments and departments of community medicine. Problems have developed as to how these agencies can be in the main stream of the health delivery system and maintain quality in service, research, and teaching. In this paper the authors describe an experimental health care delivery and teaching model, the health-department/medical-school affiliation. They analyze the conceptual basis for the affiliation and discuss the critical items in the affiliation agreement in the belief that such an arrangement could have an impact comparable with that which the medical-school/teaching-hospital affiliation had 40 years ago. The options opened by the new affiliation should serve to release the full potential of community medicine and public health in the United States.