The paper describes a classical international approach to solving the problems of human health formation: from the development of the concept of health care and promotion, the determination of priorities and strategies for their solution to the elaboration of interdepartmental complex technologies for their realization, as well as the evaluation of the efficiency of prophylactic interventions. Based on the traditional approach to developing preventive medicine, the authors propose a new project, the basis of which is the WHO Healthy Towns project. This project is adapted for the Russian Federation as a Healthy Towns, Districts, and Settlements program. The place and role of medical prophylaxis in the development of a new approach are determined.