The delivery and organization of public health in England: setting the research agenda.

The publication of Best Research for Best Health highlighted the need for the NHS Service and Delivery Organisation (SDO) Programme to develop a programme of research on public health service delivery and organization. This paper reviews the need for this research by reviewing recent policy documents and public health research activity. The paper outlines the role of the SDO Programme in relation to other current developments and discusses how these respond to the need to develop research on public health and what the research priorities are.