Population health is concerned with reducing health inequities, defined as being unfair and avoidable differences in health. The equity-effectiveness framework is described and illustrated; this is an evidence-based approach to assessing the effects of programmes and policies on health equity. Such framework also assesses barriers and facilitators for improving health equity using four factors:...

BACKGROUND In 2006, the city of Milwaukee ranked worse than any Wisconsin county for health outcomes and worse than all but 1 county for health determinants. METHODS To further examine disparities in health, Milwaukee city ZIP codes were stratified into 3 groups (lower, middle, and upper) by socioeconomic status (SES). Health determinants (15 measures) and health outcomes (2 measures) were co...

More than one-third of family physicians reported participating in a quality improvement (QI) activity in the past year. Continuous QI is vital to improving personal and population health outcomes and reducing costs. Support for QI activities, their evaluation, and the dissemination of successful efforts are sorely needed.

David Hipgrave and colleagues argue that sustained collaboration is required to improve population health and health services in North Korea.

In the past decade, interest has been rising in the development, calculation and use of summary measures of population health, which combine information on mortality and non-fatal health outcomes. This paper reviews the issues and challenges in the design and application of summary measures and presents a framework for evaluating different alternatives. Summary measures have a variety of uses, ...

This article considers 2 related themes that address population health outcomes and the contributions to those outcomes by time, place, individual behaviors and choices, and activities of various social sectors. First, what does it mean to "produce" population health, and how can the production of health be understood empirically? Second, through what processes can incentives be modified to imp...

BACKGROUND A continuously operating survey can yield advantages in survey management, field operations, and the provision of timely information for policymakers and researchers. We describe the key features of the sample design of the New Zealand (NZ) Health Survey, which has been conducted on a continuous basis since mid-2011, and compare to a number of other national population health surveys...

A system that rewards population health must be able to measure and track health inequalities. Health inequalities have most commonly been measured in a bivariate fashion, as a joint distribution of health and another attribute such as income, education, or race/ethnicity. I argue this practice gives insufficient information to reduce health inequalities and propose a summary measure of health ...

Population health rankings can be used by various actors for different purposes. This article examines those potential uses and concludes that the chief promise of population health rankings lies in 2 areas. The first is to help set agendas - stimulating awareness, motivation, and debate over means to improved health outcomes. The second is to help establish broad responsibility for population ...

Southcentral Foundation's Nuka System of Care, based in Anchorage, Alaska, is a result of a customer-driven overhaul of what was previously a bureaucratic system centrally controlled by the Indian Health Service. Alaska Native people are in control as the "customer-owners" of this health care system. The vision and mission focus on physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual wellness and working...