ABSTRACT
Common to the constraints discussed in this chapter has been the influence of globalised threats to health, whether at political, economic, cultural, or environmental level. It is now no longer appropriate to consider health from a local or national perspective, nor to continue to focus on health treatments without addressing the causes of ill health. We must now take into account that the nature of human interaction has changed and ‘that boundaries, whether spatial (territorial), temporal (time) and cognitive (thought processes) are being redefined’.225 Recognition of globalisation in the context of health has resulted in a resurgence of interest in public health, which has in the last 50 years been marginalised by a focus on medical technology and the provision of medical treatment.
