About Our Work

The Department of Population Science and Policy was established to take a new approach to health care that combines data analysis, community engagement, and policy formation to address the social and structural factors that most influence health. Since our formation as the Office of the Population Science and Policy in 2016 and promotion to a full academic medical department in 2018, we have focused our work on the most pressing needs in rural and underserved Illinois.

Thanks to the foresight of SIU Medicine leaders, the Department is one of the nation’s first population health-focused academic medical departments and remains one of only a handful of such departments focused primarily on underserved rural communities. We work with both clinical and basic science departments to advance SIU School of Medicine’s mission to optimize the health of the people of central and southern Illinois through education, patient care, research, and service to the community.