The Opportunity
Population health is the collective well-being and functional ability of an identified group of people to experience their full capabilities. It has multiple environmental, behavioral, social, and biological determinants. Population health is generally understood as a systems-level concept that describes health outcomes of a group of individuals that are measured through a broad spectrum of public health, clinical care, socioeconomic, and physical environmental determinants that function interdependently and cumulatively. Population health not only focuses on disease and illness across multiple sectors, but also on health and well-being, prevention, and health promotion, as well as disparities in such outcomes and improvement activities within a group and/or between groups. Identifying valid and reliable measures of performance across these multiple sectors can be challenging. Data collection, health assessments at individual and aggregate levels, payment structures, quality of patient care, public health interventions, and other components present challenges in shaping widespread, standardized implementation of population health measures. Overcoming these challenges is critical to any strategy to understand and improve the health of populations.
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For more information, please contact populationhealth@qualityforum.org.