Revisiting the schism

The schism between medicine and public health has deep historical roots. The Rockefeller Foundation's Clinical Epidemiology program, initiated in the late 1970s, was seen by Kerr White, its director, as the means to heal the schism. This article revisits the role that the Foundation played in creating that schism before reviewing post-World War II efforts on the part of both the Foundation and the World Health Organization to incorporate the teaching of preventive medicine in medical education curricula. White labeled these efforts as failures, but a closer look at the history raises questions concerning what evidence he used to make this judgment and whether clinical epidemiology has not instead widened the gap between cure and prevention.