The Emergence of Population Health in US Academic Medicine

Gourevitch, Marc N.; Curtis, Lesley H.; Durkin, Maureen S.; Fagerlin, Angela; Gelijns, Annetine C.; Platt, Richard; Reininger, Belinda M.; Wylie‐Rosett, Judith; Jones, Katherine R.; Tierney, William M.

doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.2200

Cited by 28 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…As hospitals begin to develop departments of population health (40), they can leverage that growing expertise-in data collection and analysis, in implementation science, in partnering to promote health and wellness outside their walls-to guide their community health improvement programs and widen the lens from patients in the delivery system to residents in the community. In this way, community benefit resources can be deployed more effectively to address important community health priorities, build community and institutional capacity, and lay a foundation for long-term sustainable change.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Leveraging Population Health Expertise to Enhance Community Benefit

Kaplan¹,

Gourevitch²

2020

Front. Public Health

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As the Internal Revenue Service strengthens the public health focus of community benefit regulations, and many states do the same with their tax codes, hospitals are being asked to look beyond patients in their delivery system to understand and address the needs of geographic areas. With the opportunities this affords come challenges to be addressed. The regulations' focus on population health is not limited to a defined clinical population-and the resulting emphasis on upstream determinants of health and community engagement is unfamiliar territory for many healthcare systems. At the same time, for many community residents and community-based organizations, large medical institutions can feel complicated to engage with or unwelcoming. And for neighborhoods that have experienced chronic underinvestment in upstream determinants of health-such as social services, housing and education-funds made available by hospitals through their community health improvement activities may seem insufficient and unreliable. Despite these regulatory requirements, many hospitals, focused as they are on managing patients in their delivery system, have not yet invested significantly in community health improvement. Moreover, although there are important exceptions, community health improvement projects have often lacked a strong evidence base, and true health system-community collaborations are relatively uncommon. This article describes how a large academic medical center tapped into the expertise of its population health research faculty to partner with local community-based organizations to oversee the community health needs assessment and to design, implement and evaluate a set of geographically based community-engaged health improvement projects. The resulting program offers a paradigm for health system investment in area-wide population health improvement.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Leveraging Population Health Expertise to Enhance Community Benefit

Kaplan¹,

Gourevitch²

2020

Front. Public Health

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“…7 Within universities, academic health centers (AHCs) are the natural home for health services/population health research. 2,3 In a recently published analysis of the ways in which US AHCs support multidisciplinary health services research activities, Gourevitch et al 2 identified 15 AHC departments (with "population" as part of the department name) across all US accredited medical schools, each with unique structural characteristics. However, as the results of this survey illustrate, well-defined academic departments are not the only homes for health services/population health investigators.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In fact, there is increased interest and focus on health services/population health research, and many academic medical centers are now forming formal departments of population health. 2,3 The term population health often refers to the health or determinants of health among a group of patients receiving health care from a health care delivery system or academic institution. The term is also used when referring to the health and determinants of health of persons residing in a particular geographic area or specific community, regardless of their receipt of health care services.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Participation in Health Services/Population Health Research in US Departments of Medicine

Barnholtz‐Sloan

Salata

Zaidi

et al. 2020

The American Journal of Medicine

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“…However, population health departments can and must play a critical role to "bridge the worlds of medicine and public health and of delivery system and community." 3…”

Section: Measuring Successmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Within their regions, outcome measures may include lower premature mortality rates, improved measures of well-being and equity, falling per capita health care investments, along with increased investments in more upstream determinants.For a concrete step, we welcome the authors' interest in organizing a forum for sharing their academic missions, experiences, and emerging ideas and concur that the Interdisciplinary Association for Population Health Science (IAPHS) has a "strong thematic alignment. "3 As former and current IAPHS board members, we are pleased that IAPHS will host a preconference event for the Academic Population Health Leaders Working Group before the IAPHS 2019 annual meeting 8.…”

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confidence: 99%

Can Academic Population Health Departments Improve Population Health?

Kindig

Magnan

2019

JAMA Netw Open

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While the broad themes of population health go back centuries, its current rebirth, at least in the United States and Canada, began with the 1994 publication of Why Are Some People Healthy and Others Not? The Determinants of Health of Populations. 1 Although it offers no concise definition of population health, its authors said the concept's "linking thread [was] the common focus on trying to understand the determinants of health of populations." 1 In 2003, the most widely used current definition was published, stating that population health is "the health outcomes of a group of individuals, including the distribution of such outcomes within the group." 2 Kindig and Stoddart 2 believed the original concept, limited to the study of multiple determinants, to be too academic and not a health outcome and equity definition capable of stimulating strong population health policy. The strongest contemporary influence on growing the field of population health was the 2003 to 2016 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health and Society Scholars postdoctoral program. Of the 6 initial sites, only 3 were based in medical schools. Given the recognized critical role of the social determinants of health and, therefore, broader academic disciplines, such as sociology, economics, and public health, a hallmark of the Health and Society Scholars program was the development of strong multidisciplinary linkages across schools. It was explicitly recognized that, if population health outcomes derive from a multideterminant production function, multiple disciplines and policy sectors are required for understanding and action.

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The Emergence of Population Health in US Academic Medicine

Abstract: This qualitative study describes the emergence of departments of population health at US academic medical centers, including shared areas of focus, opportunities, and challenges.

Cited by 28 publications

References 8 publications

Leveraging Population Health Expertise to Enhance Community Benefit

Leveraging Population Health Expertise to Enhance Community Benefit

Participation in Health Services/Population Health Research in US Departments of Medicine

Can Academic Population Health Departments Improve Population Health?

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