Regardless of the type of health planning or administrative structures used, one of the three core functions of public health (PH) is assessment and monitoring of the health of communities and populations at risk with the intent to identify health problems and priorities. This core function, along with the other two focusing on health care access and on formulation of health policies, was discussed briefly in Lecture 1. It is based on this core function of identifying health problems and priorities that health risk assessment plays an important role in PH.