All health topics have importance to someone, somewhere, at some time. However, not all topics of relevance to individuals will be considered to have population health importance. The needs of the one (or the few) differ from the needs of the many. The planning of good care for individuals is made easier by reference to a standard—so what standard could we apply to determine relevance to planning the care of populations? The following four-point “screen” can help judge whether a given topic has population health importance:
Communicating the strategic/ public health context by reflecting on and answering these questions can help ensure cluster needs assessment has added clarity around the rational for planning health improvement actions for topics that are likely to have population-level impacts.