Population Health

A View from the Surgeon General: The National Prevention Strategy — Working Together to Become a More Healthy and Fit Nation

by Jenna Ogilvie | Jul 15, 2013 | Commentary, Perspectives

Introduction In this commentary, Dr. Regina Benjamin highlights accomplishments of the National Prevention Council, an unprecedented gathering of multiple federal departments and agencies whose policies and practices bear on health. Authorized under the Affordable...

Getting Serious About the Social Determinants of Health

by Jenna Ogilvie | May 9, 2013 | Commentary, Perspectives

We have long known that factors outside of medical care—race, education, housing, income, and other social determinants—are the most important drivers of how healthy or sick we are. It is not new information that people of color get unequal health care and have poorer...

Making the Case for Hastening Progress Toward Health Equity

by Laura DeStefano | Jan 24, 2013 | Commentary, Perspectives

Health equity has been defined in many ways, but essentially the concept focuses on promoting social justice rather than economic or social status as the primary means for determining access to good health and well-being (Braveman, 2006). Another way, however, of...

Analytics in Support of Health Care Transformation

by Laura DeStefano | Dec 14, 2012 | Commentary, Perspectives

We have a good concept of the flawed state of health care, the critical need for change, and the future we want. Patient-centered, personalized care, provided by collaborating care teams, is a part of that vision. Many changes will be necessary to achieve that future,...

Support Title X and Family Planning

by Laura DeStefano | Sep 28, 2012 | Commentary, Perspectives

Family planning is one of the 10 greatest public health achievements of the 20th century, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (1999). Nearly 75 percent of women of reproductive age in the United States (64 million) receive at least one family...