Service-based research: linking public health research and practice to improve the quality of public health programs.

The 1988 Institute of Medicine report, The Future Of Public Health, issued a challenge for increased collaboration between the academic public health and the public health practice communities.' The longstanding disconnect between these communities was reflected in public health research that did not address the pressing concerns of public health practice, public health teaching that did not adequately prepare students for practice settings and roles, and a reward structure within academic public health that devalued applied research, teaching, and service. In this commentary, we present a model of research (service-based research [SBR]) that fosters the goal of enhancing academic-practitioner collaboration, and is designed to improve the quality of public health practice.