Our health system is in the middle of a metamorphosis. While we do not fully know the outcome of this transformation, we know it is changing the way decisions are made and health professionals and patients work together.

For instance, electronic health records and technologies that exchange health information now enable health care providers and patients to make more informed decisions.

More widespread use of the Internet means that medical research often takes weeks or months to be published, rather than years, and this information is accessible to everyone — patients as well as health professionals.

Our health systems increasingly need to address the quality of services delivered, and health professionals are becoming responsible for tracking and tackling those quality issues.

Collaborative team-based care means that health professionals from different disciplines, such as primary care, behavioral health, oral health and public health, now work together in partnership with each other as well as with patients to make decisions.

These transformations in our health system therefore call for new expertise.

Health professionals need the ability to analyze patient information to make more informed decisions.

They need the tools to evaluate aggregate health outcomes data for all of their patients and make decisions about how to improve those outcomes for the entire population for which they are responsible.

They need the capability to scrutinize new research and decide how applicable the findings are to the population they serve, as well as how to answer people’s questions about the research.

They need the ability to assure the quality of health services and to track quality measures.

They need collaborative leadership skills to learn from colleagues in different disciplines and from patients.

And, with team-based care, it is critical that these skills are accessible to all health disciplines, not just a few.

The good news is that education in public health provides the new expertise needed for today’s changing health system.

For instance, public health courses in epidemiology, biostatistics and clinical outcome analytics give health professionals the tools to analyze clinical research and health data to help patients make more informed decisions.

Public health courses in emergency preparedness, disease prevention, health promotion, infectious and chronic disease control and environmental health prepare health professionals to address emerging health issues.

Public health courses in assessment, evaluation and quality improvement give health professionals the tools to assure the quality of our health system.

The University of New England offers Maine’s only accredited master of public health degree as well as a certificate program. And with the availability of our program online, this means public health education is available across Maine, New England and anywhere there is access to the Internet.

UNE’s master of public health program is offered fully online and is hosted by a university with numerous health professional graduate schools and programs, including medicine, pharmacy, nursing, social work, physician assistant and, soon, dental. The result is that our public health students form an online community of UNE faculty and diverse learners from many different professions and geographic regions. This learning community also teaches the skills needed for collaborative team-based care.

This heightened access to public health education that UNE provides holds great potential to help improve the health of people, especially in needy areas. For instance, some places with the greatest health needs are in our rural areas or other regions with steep barriers to accessing public health higher education.

As an example, Maine’s Washington County was one of the few places in the country in which life expectancy decreased from the 1960s to the 1990s. Somerset, Piscataquis, and Oxford counties are also rural counties with long-standing disparate health outcomes.

The basic tools needed to improve the health status of a population are those found in public health, and fortunately, health professionals and others in many underserved rural areas now have better access to public health education through UNE’s online program.

With our health system in the middle of a metamorphosis, now is the time for health professionals and others interested in public health to consider joining the ranks from throughout Maine, New England and around the globe at UNE as we transform health education to develop a work force that can lead health systems and communities to improve the health of all people.

Dora Anne Mills is vice president of clinical affairs at the University of New England. She is a former public health director for Maine.

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