Shaping the Health of the Masses
As a young man pursuing his professional doctorate in dentistry, Steve Wyatt pondered what is more effective: treating individual patients or practicing population-based prevention?
"Clinical care was, and continues to be expensive. Focusing on prevention made sense to me," he recalls.
Three decades later, prevention is still his focus. During his career, Wyatt has successfully blended his professional clinical training in dentistry with the broad-based population approach to healthcare. A retired captain in the United States Public Health Service, he has devoted his career to building public health research and practice programs through senior leadership positions at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and now UK. He currently works guiding the public health curriculum and research at the University of Kentucky that is preparing the next generation of public health professionals.
Wyatt, dean of the UK College of Public Health, notes the difference public health initiatives have made in our nation’s health. The profession’s efforts eliminated polio and smallpox as national plagues. Currently, it stands at the forefront of efforts to address AIDS and other communicable and chronic diseases.
"We’re a profession of innovative thinkers. We see the potential of technologies and we try to put them to use in ways that have the broadest effects on society," says Wyatt.
"Unfortunately, we aren’t always as effective as we want to be, in part because some people just don’t hear our messages. For example, the PAP smear is 50 to 60 years old, yet a large percentage of women are routinely not screened.
"If we could increase the number of screened women, we could significantly reduce the incidence of cervical cancer," Wyatt says.
Public health professionals benefit from a comprehensive and robust training program, just as other health sciences graduate and professional programs, Wyatt says. The UK College of Public Health has seen a huge increase in interest among students, and he saysthey come from a variety of backgrounds.
"We have one of the most diverse student populations on UK’s campus. More than 20 percent of our students are minorities," he says. The students are being drawn by the national interest in public health that has grown out of concern for bioterrorism and other issues. They are also attracted to public health to develop the skills to address health disparities in population subgroups.
"A lot of kids adopt a ’medical detective’ perspective. Often, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is presented as an agency of ’disease detectives,’" Wyatt says.
"These are folks who aren’t sure that we, as a nation, practice prevention enough. In many cases they have gone to medical school, dental school or pharmacy school and received their degrees, then they come here for a master’s degree in public health," he says. A public health degree broadens their perspective and enhances their research skills. Other students come here directly from undergraduate programs to pursue their master's in public health (MPH).
Wyatt himself knows the routine. After attending Murray State University, in the 1970s for his undergraduate work, the native Kentuckian (and lifelong Wildcat fan) came to UK to obtain his doctor of dental medicine degree. A faculty mentor in dental school suggested he consider a public health career. Listening to his mentor, he then pursued and obtained his MPH at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the University of Illinois.
Today, he shapes the education of students – and, by extension, the overall health of his city, state and nation.
"We serve the public health community by training public health practitioners, who in turn impact the health and well-being of individuals all over the state. We serve the academic public health community by training faculty. We serve this campus by enhancing the research skills of our existing faculty," says Wyatt.
"Returning to UK and having the opportunity to develop a cancer research program and to now guide the College of Public Health, is truly the highlight of what I consider to have been a wonderfully successful career. I’ve appreciated UK, as a native of the state and as an alum, my entire life. To have the opportunity to work with the great group of faculty, staff and students in public health and across our campus, to move things forward to make Kentucky, and our nation, a healthier place to live, is simply exciting," Wyatt says.