Innovation!

Public health thrives on innovation. In our attempts to understand the causes of disease and to improve intervention delivery modalities and outcomes, we are in a constant state of application and innovative revision; we collect data, perform analyses, and implement actions on the basis of those results. Those new actions are assessed, and the process is repeated and has been repeated across human history-it is our nature. And more often than not, if the assessment of the action leads to a null finding (or, to our ancestors, a "dead end"), we prefer to transform, modify, and innovate rather than give up.

Innovation can be operationalized in a variety of ways, including innovation in experimental design, theoretical frameworks, and in statistical analyses. In this issue of the Journal, we present several examples of innovation in design, frameworks, and...