The promise of population health

by Kent Bottles As a lecturer at The Thomas Jefferson University School of Population Health in Philadelphia, I sometimes forget not all hospital and medical leaders really understand population health. It is one of those phrases--like accountable care organization or value-based payment or patient-centered medical home--you hear all the time. But what does population health really mean? It should not surprise me that front-line hospital administrators and practicing physicians are confused by the term because the academics have not really provided us with a workable definition. What is population health and why has it become such an important healthcare term? The population health concept seems to have originated in Canada where investigators tried to understand why some populations of people were healthier than others. In discussing the issue they attempted to identify determinants of health, public policies that contributed to health, and resource allocations that made some communities healthy. Social scientists contributed to the field by emphasizing an individual's health is affected by family and community networks, living and working conditions, and broad public policies. A 2002 Health Affairs article titled "The Case for More Active Policy Attention to Health Promotion" famously made the point that access to and quality of medical treatment only accounted for 10 percent of a person's health status. Behavioral choices such as diet, physical activity, substanc...
Source: hospital impact - Category: Health Managers Authors: Source Type: blogs