In January, the Institute of Medicine released the report Living Well with Chronic Illness: A Call for Public Health Action.  The report may strike some…

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The August 26, 2011 issue of The Lancet is dedicated to the global obesity epidemic. The issue was timed to coincide with the upcoming United Nations high-level  meeting concerning non-communicable diseases. The first high profile global meeting dedicated to obesity was sponsored by the…

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There is agreement among public health and medical practitioners that the chronic disease epidemic will affect many facets of American life.  Local health departments (LHDs) need to re-invent themselves in order to become organizations capable of influencing policies and practices in sectors ranging from transportation to food marketing.  In addition,  LHDs need new strategies and tactics to move the social determinants of health agenda forward in several arenas.  A challenging fiscal…

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Controversy continues regarding the impact of prevention on health care costs.  I understand that prevention was not properly quantified by the budget analysts assigned to score the health reform measure.  Thankfully, in Canada we do not have to condend with as much  skepticism.  So I was rather taken aback by an article from the Kaiser group.  Two (non-physicians of course) were making the case for prevention as a means of addressing health care costs.  It is a good try, but the authors do…

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The health reform prevention and public health fund may disappear from the federal budget at a time when evidence shows population health improvement is moving in the wrong direction.  The link is to an LA Times article that is not good news.

"The…

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California is home to over 200 organizations that reflect characteristics of accountable care organizations. The large number of ACO-like practices make California an 'ACO ecosystem'. The Integrated Healthcare Association recently released a white paper that presents ten lessons learned from California's experience with a key element of health reform.…

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We often hear the U.S. is far behind other countries in its approach to public health. This is particularly the case with chronic disease. We have all seen the data: the US spends trillions and has little to show for such a hefty medical care tab. Canada is often characterized as public health nirvana with universal access to care and better stats to show for the effort.

The Canadians are quite willing to test approaches that were successful elsewhere in their provinces. The Canadian…

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Mobile networks are used in Africa to help with vaccinating people and even more complicated health work. The article I am contributing gives a number of suggestions about how technology can help public health reach a wide range of people and sub-sections of those people to deliver a range of content that can help people eat better food and spend more time exercising. Here is an interesting paragraph

" However, the trend toward rapid convergence of these…

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A group of psychologists at Bangor University in Wales developed a programme that was proven successful in changing a child's eating habits for the better. The program is not that well known outside the UK, but has been gaining a following. WHO has given a nod of approval. Yes, we need to be cautious about demonstrating efficacy, but it is a start.

According to the website:

The Food Dudes Healthy Eating Programme is a school-based intervention designed for use in…

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Health Affairs (Web Exclusives) confirms that obesity is the leading cost driver in medical care across all payer sources. Complications associated with obesity, primarily chronic disease, accounted for the increase in Medicare spending from 1987-2006.

Annual Medical Spending Attributable to Obesity: Payer-and service-specific estimates

July 2009…

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I found the report Measuring the Effects of Sprawl very helpful in understanding evidence of the impact of land use decisions on obesity and physical activity. As a planner I needed to understand the evidence that is the foundation for health communities. Although the report was released nearly seven years ago, it was the first national study on the subject.

Excerpt from press realease…

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Activities to document our food environment are gaining momentum. The USDA released a web-based tool that provides several food & physical activity indicators for all counties in the nation.

The Atlas assembles statistics on three broad categories of food environment factors:

• Food Choices—Indicators of the community's access to and acquisition of healthy, affordable food, such as: access and proximity to a grocery store; number of foodstores and…

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The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco (FRBSF) publishes the Community Development Investment Review. FRBSF's Community Affairs Department created the Center for Community Development to research & raise the visibility of the latest efforts in providing capital to low-income and/or economically fragile communities. The summer 2009 issue (Volume 5, Issue 3) was dedicated to the impact of place/community on health.

The spectrum of disciplines &…

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Steve Case is the co-founder of America Online, the nation's first successful email provider. He is chairman of the Case Foundation, and chairman and chief executive of Revolution, an umbrella corporation that supports companies with innovative business models. Granted, Case stresses individual behavior change as key, but prevention needs to be kept in the spotlight whenever possible.



Excerpt of article from the Washington Post

By Steve Case

Friday, January 1,… Continue

Three sets of friends were able to get through the air traffic skylock to join me and my partner for dinner today. One couple was from Toronto-wife a nurse practitioner and the husband an engineer. I mentioned D4H and Anita shared this website with me that oddly enough explained something I had a lot of trouble understanding. Hope someone finds this useful.



A large volume of research has looked at whether and to what extent there has in fact been a compression of morbidity. It may… Continue

RWJ's Commission to Build a Healthier America issued a brief summarizing simple messages concerning social determinants of health and health equity. As public health folks begin to take the concepts of social determinants & health equity to a lay audience, the conversation needs to engage not intimidate or ,to be totally honest, not be as boring as listening to paint dry.



Remember how all Snoopy can hear is blah blah blah but pays attention when he hears words that matter to him?… Continue