Lymphoedema in breast cancer patients.

Recently, the Australasian Faculty of Public Health Medicine (AFPHM) was asked: “How do we know we’ve made a difference?” Most responses would include the 10 great public health achievements of the 20th century identified by the US Centers for Disease Control — vaccination, safer and healthier foods, healthier mothers and babies, family planning, fluoridation of drinking water, control of infectious diseases, motor vehicle safety, safer work places, declining deaths from coronary heart disease and stroke, and recognising tobacco as a health hazard. These are prodigious, so why the current soul searching? Does public health have an identity crisis? It would seem so!