Population Health and the Federal Reserve...Are You Kidding?

By David A. Kindig, MD, PhD

I’ve mentioned before that a “convergence of scholarship, policy, and practice initiatives seems poised to bring an overdue population health perspective to thinking about and acting on health and health improvement.” One of the purposes of this blog is to keep track of all that is bubbling up in likely—and often unlikely—places.

This convergence was exemplified by a meeting I attended last week at the Federal Reserve in Washington, DC. The event was co-sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and was titled “Healthy Communities: Exploring the Intersection of Community Development and Health.”

The meeting brought together public and private sector experts in policy, community development, and finance to explore what the fields of health and community development can learn from each other (for background reading, check out this issue of Community Development and Investment Review).

Here are some initial impressions:

• I learned that the “other” CDC is the Community Development Financial Institutions or Corporations, which promote affordable housing and business development to keep individuals and families out of poverty. (See articles by Richter and Andrews in Community Development and Investment Review issue linked to above.)
• I was pleased that the multiple and social determinants of health took center stage, with significant discussion on the damaging biological stress pathways associated with lower socioeconomic status.
• The fields of health and community development share many priorities, including early childhood investments, fresh food infrastructure, and efficient and innovative healthcare delivery.
• We must aggressively advocate for health in all policies, from nonprofit hospital Community Benefit regulations to the Community Reinvestment Act.
• Both the White House and the OMB seem fully supportive of multisectoral and place-based strategies as well as redirecting financial streams in innovative and more cost-effective directions.
• There may be a major opportunity for collaboration between federal Community Health Centers (CHCs) and community development organizations as CHCs are set to greatly expand to cover 40 Million low income persons under health care reform.

As we continue to call for broad and inclusive approaches for improving population health, we need to continue to identify common ground and build alliances with partners in unlikely places.

Have any to add to the list?

David A. Kindig, MD, PhD, is Emeritus Professor of Population Health Sciences and Emeritus Vice-Chancellor for Health Sciences at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.

Comments

[Saludcomunitaria.wordpress.com]

Thanks for this very interesting post.
What and "Where" are those "unlikely places" referred to in the article?