Public health knowledge and intelligence professional
Public health knowledge and intelligence professionals help to provide information that's essential both for identifying issues that have a negative effect on people’s health, and for planning to deal with those issues.
Public health knowledge and intelligence professionals are responsible for gathering, analysing and interpreting information. They can be broadly divided into:
- knowledge professionals (who maintain and manage evidence and knowledge resources in public health)
- intelligence professionals (who analyse, interpret and present data about public health)
Public health knowledge and intelligence professionals support health protection, health improvement and healthcare public health.
If you’re working within health protection you may be involved in work on infectious diseases requiring a rapid response (for example, providing information to inform the advice given to the public about pandemic flu or norovirus).
If you’re working in health improvement or healthcare public health, you may be more involved in the longer-term work of interpreting data on chronic diseases (such as heart disease or lung cancer).
Job titles and roles within knowledge and intelligence can vary depending on their level of seniority and the employer.
Want to find out more?
- Find out more about the working life of public health knowledge professionals
- Find out more about the working life of public health intelligence professionals
- Find out more about entry and registration for public health knowledge and intelligence professionals
- Find out more about the skills and interests needed for public health knowledge and intelligence professionals
- Find out more about training and development for public health knowledge and intelligence professionals
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Pay and conditions of employment are likely to vary depending on the employer. For more information, visit our pay and benefits page.
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There may be a number of ways of achieving professional accreditation and training associated with knowledge and intelligence roles.
Public health knowledge
A typical career pathway might begin with an assistant librarian role, and then progress to librarian, head librarian or into a managerial role.
Public health intelligence
Someone joining as a graduate might begin as an analyst then progress to more senior positions, such as more senior analyst roles or head of intelligence within Public Health England, the NHS or a local authority.
