Background <p>The syndemic has become a popular theoretical idea in academic research. Recent studies have systematically translated the idea from research to practice, including policy implementation and healthcare programming. However, the potential uses of the idea in broader health policy debates remain unclear.</p> Objective <p>The purpose of this paper is to translate the idea of syndemics into a policy idea and tentatively assess the potential uses of the idea in health policy debates. We consider the potential uses of the syndemic as a device for seeing and choosing and consider the utility of its use as an outlook, problem definition, and policy solution.</p> Methods <p>Previous studies have deployed theoretical reinterpretation-driven scoping reviews to translate the idea of syndemics from research to other domains. We conduct a scoping review based on systematic literature searches and screening to map out the field of research that explicitly discusses syndemics and policy, and theoretically reinterpret the field to recognize the potential uses of the idea in policy debates.</p> Conclusion <p>Our reinterpretation suggests that the syndemic potentially has multiple but somewhat limited uses as a device for seeing and choosing. We argue that the idea can bring added value to health policy debates when used to delimit problem definitions and policy solutions. More targeted research on real-life policy contexts is needed to grasp the range of uses of the syndemic as a policy idea.</p>