Tammie Jones
Senior Health Policy Officer, US Army Office of The Surgeon General
“Population health is a visionary statement that gives a sense of what we want for our population. A health status that allows individuals in our communities to serve one another to their greatest ability.”
Dr. Christy Harris Lemak
Professor and Chair, the Health Services Administration Department at the University of Alabama at Birmingham
“Understanding (measuring) the health of a defined population (community, covered life population, set of patients) to include all aspects of health (physical, mental, etc.) and to include the underlying determinants of that health (e.g., poverty, housing, nutrition, exercise, pollution) and, most importantly, working to improve the health of that population.”
Dr. Stephen Martin
Executive Director, Association for Community Health Improvement
“Population health is the health outcomes of a defined group of people, including the distribution of such outcomes within the group (Kindig et al).”
Dr. Larry Mullins
President and CEO, Samaritan Health Services
“Some would define it as determining the health of a defined group or population using health care modifiers to help make that determination. An easier answer might be just taking care of our family, friends and neighbors on a larger scale.”
Roy J. Orr
Director of Business Development and Supply Chain Services, Salem Health
“Population health is the health status or outcome of a group of people. The distribution of various conditions throughout the group allows for an improved understanding of a particular population’s health.”
Joseph Paduda
Principal, Health Strategy Associates
“A measure of and policies affecting the overall well-being of the residents of a defined area.”
Bonnie Panlasigui
Chief Administrative Officer, Alameda Hospital
“We are entering a population tsunami. For example, California will be one of the first ‘minority majority’ states in the country. How we respond to diversity in the population is key … the social inequities are the social determinants of health that impact pre-hospital chronic disease management, post-hospital surgery outcomes and readmissions — all factors that have an operational impact on a hospital.”
David C. Pate, MD, JD
President and CEO, St. Luke’s Health System
“Population health encompasses the programs, services, tactics and initiatives that a population health manager (e.g., a health system or an accountable care organization) utilizes in order to assume the accountability for the outcomes of care and the cost of that care for an entire population or subpopulation of people, only some of whom may currently be patients.”
Janet Porter
Principal, Stroudwater Associates
“Population health is the analysis and design of interventions and management of large groups of citizens focused on improving their health status.”
Barry Ronan
President & CEO, Western Maryland Health System
“Population health involves transitioning care delivery to a model that is value based which includes focusing on better case management of those patients with multiple co-morbidities, partnering in care delivery with other providers, including previous competitors, better managing overall utilization and caring for patients in the most appropriate setting, not necessarily acute care.”
David Rubenstein, FACHE
Clinical Associate Professor, Texas State University
“I’m comfortable with the Institute of Medicine (IOM) definition which describes population health as ‘the health outcomes of a group of individuals, including the distribution of such outcomes within the group (Kindig and Stoddart, 2003).’”
Kathryn Ruscitto
CEO, Joseph’s Hospital Health Center
“Population health means taking an analytical approach to understanding the health needs, disparities and outcomes of the community and to align improvement initiatives.”
Marie Savard, MD
Managing Director of Health Care Practice, Diversified Search
“Assuming total health and health care responsibility for a group of individuals and empowering them with health information and tools with an emphasis on personalized prevention and self-management programs. From my experience, it is managing care for the right reasons and improved health of the patient versus for economic reasons alone, which was the primary motivation of past attempts in population health.”
