The American Journal of Preventive Medicine and the American Journal of Public Health released a first-time joint publication June 13, which promoted the intersection of public health and primary medicine.
While the Supreme Court continues to deliberate the future of the Affordable Care Act, health leaders are already promoting collaboration to improve the nation’s public health and primary care systems.
A first-time joint publication released this week by the American Journal of Public Health and the American Journal of Preventive Medicine describes how public health and primary medicine must overlap to maximize resources and develop healthier livelihoods.
“The Affordable Care Act is premised on the principle that ‘the health of the individual is almost inseparable from the health of the larger community. And the health of each community
and territory determines the overall health status of the nation,’” wrote Sarah Linde-Feucht, of the Health Resources and Services Administration, along with co-author Natasha Coulouris, in an editorial. “The significant investments the Affordable Care Act makes in both primary care and public health signal the opportunity to transform our health system into one that integrates the two fields, from system design to community practice.”
Four agencies of the Department of Health and Human Services sponsored this special supplement — HRSA, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities of the National Institutes of Health — that complements the recent Institute of Medicine study released in late March, “Primary Care and Public Health: Exploring Integration to Improve Population Health.” The online-only publication includes a guest editor from each agency working with AJPH and AJPM to select papers from among more than 125 submitted manuscripts.
In “A Call for Action on Primary Care and Public Health Integration,” Denise Koo of CDC details examples of community departments and primary care clinics collaborating in New York City, Seattle and Massachusetts; and also states how alliances between government agencies, public health and the medical community help promulgate healthy behavior and overcome financial obstacles that can otherwise prevent it.
Howard Koh of HHS stressed patient-centeredness in his editorial, co-authored by Marilyn Tavenner of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The authors state that the ACA has helped primary care physicians and other health professionals provide 25.7 million Medicare beneficiaries with new preventive benefits, and that the new federal National Prevention Strategy has set four pillars for action: creating, sustaining and recognizing communities that promote health and wellness through prevention; ensuring that prevention-focused health care and community prevention efforts are available, integrated and mutually reinforcing; supporting people in making healthy choices; and eliminating disparities and improving the quality of life for all Americans.
“We envision a day when, in addition to accountable care organizations, we will recognize accountable communities, demonstrating progress for patients and populations alike,” Koh said. “Connecting care through the clinic and the community will not only help the patients we see but also those we will never see.”
The special joint supplement is freely available at www.ajph.org and www.ajpmonline.org.
2 comments
Gary "Chris" Christopherson says:
Jun 15, 2012
OF COURSE!
Why we keep re-visiting this is beyond me. This was a settled issue 35 years ago when I and others built an integrated public health and primary care and specialty care and hospital care system for Milwaukee.
It was a settled issue a long time ago at the Department of Defense when I and others led the Military Health System.
This is not a debate. It is a continuing failure to act.
Who gets hurt? People. By the way, it is not patient-centered, it is person-centered. That is the full integration of public health and primary health care.
We need to finally build the healthy and thriving future for which we are spending nearly 1/5 of our economy. More than any country in the world.
The keys to this healthy and thriving future include: Puts person at center of health care plan development and delivery; Optimizes involvement of person in self care; Has partnership between person and her/his clinician; Makes person’s satisfaction with care a critical success factor; Addresses critical role that person’s behavior plays and how to achieve target behaviors; Optimizes health outcomes and status for person; Provides care between episodes of illness; Provides care in a way in which person is better willing and able to succeed; Shares the right info at the right time in a way usable by the person; Has/uses electronic health record covering all of person’s care by that provider and by other health providers; Has (makes available) and uses electronic personal health system; Shares/exchanges (when appropriate/authorized) person’s EHR info with another health provider involved in care; Checks for and avoids conflicting therapies; Does prevention or early intervention well; Truly personalizes (does “mass personalization”) population-based health programs; Addresses co-morbidity (e.g. multiple illnesses requiring multiple medications) well; Takes good personal and family history and fully incorporates it into care plan; Builds in family, friends, coworkers and rest of community that impact health; Utilizes “care in the community” as key part of person’s health and health care; Coordinates across all settings (self care, clinic, hospital, nursing home, community care); Coordinates across all providers (primary care, specialty and subspecialty care); Takes into account person’s environment (home, work, community); Appropriately utilizes increasing benefits of genetics in prevention and health care; Operates at the convenience of the person instead of primarily operating at the convenience of health provider; Provides attention and “care” to persons with and without financial access; Makes care affordable to person and his/her payer(s); Helps with “portability” of care and info necessary to make care portable; Takes extra steps to ensure provided health care is safe; and Appreciates person’s privacy concerns and protecting privacy, including security of health records and messages.
Gary Christopherson, Founder, HealthePeople, http://www.HealthePeople.com
Former Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs
Health and Medical News and Resources says:
Jun 22, 2012
[...] Journals call for integration between public health and primary care (PublicHealthNewsWire) [...]