The Guide to Community Preventive Services: What Works to Promote Health

The Guide to Community Preventive Services  is a great resource for what methods and interventions work well to improve public health. It is geared towards public health officials, researchers, and policy makers. However, it is also a good aid for anyone looking for the best way(s) to address issues touching family members and friends. The information can be used to promote or advocate for changes in policies and laws at local or national levels. They can be used to positively influence changes for the better in schools, workplaces, public health departments, and more.

A good way to start is through the Topics link at the top of the page. It includes links to issues as asthma, cancer, diabetes, nutrition, obesity, vaccines, and violence. Each topic includes links to more information on the topic and related topics.
Many topics have summaries of recommendations and findings. For example the topic Diabetes includes recommendations for certain disease management programs but insufficient evidence for self management programs in school settings or worksites.

All information on the interventions for a specific topic (as violence, diabetes, alcoholism) is carefully reviewed through a standardized step by step process.  systematic reviews. Each reviews includes summarized results of all related evidence.  These unbiased evidence-based reviews are also called systematic reviews.
[Click here for a good explanation of the systematic review process]

Each topic in this community guide answer questions  such as: c

• What interventions have and have not worked?
• In which populations and settings has the intervention worked or not worked?
• What might the intervention cost? What should I expect for my investment?
• Does the intervention lead to any other benefits or harms?
• What interventions need more research before we know if they work or not?

Click on these tabs at the top of the  home page for additional information

• Use the community guide for an overview,  listing of topics, and subscribing to email updates
• Methods for explanations of systematic and economic reviews
• Resources as
  • Publications by and about this task force
  • Slides to help tell others about this guide
  • Outreach materials as a flyer, a bookmark and a table tent
  • A glossary
  • News and a comprehensive About Us sections

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Nimble Medicine | The Health Care Blog

Nimble Medicine | The Health Care Blog

This is an interesting blog posting on business models (old) and technologies (new) in health care delivery.
The author writes on why this is not working.

Specifically the author is advocating decentralization of health care delivery to reduce costs and reduce time in treating people at the onset of health problems (before and during treatment).

The author does provide a disclaimer, he is employed by a health care technology company.

Still, an interesting view of what health care industry trends.

 

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New Thinking: Medical Hot Spots (Lowering Medical Costs by Giving Neediest Patients Better Care)

From the 2 August 2011 blog posting at Medical-Lee Speaking

Atul Gawande, associate professor of surgery and public health at Harvard and one of our most prolific contemporary physician-writers, adapts his New Yorker piece [full text of the article The Hotspotters] surveying innovative attempts to lower healthcare costs by better serving those patients with greatest need to a 13 minute PBS FRONTLINE report focused on one such program, the Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers in Camden, New Jersey, led by Dr. Jeffrey Brenner, that is having unprecedented success.

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IOM Report: Government Should Consider Public Health Implications Of All Major Legislation

For the Public’s Health: Revitalizing Law and Policy to Meet New Challenges

A new report by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) says that strong evidence indicates that policies beyond the health sector have substantial effects on people’s health, and recommends that all levels of U.S. government adopt a structured approach to considering the health effects of any major legislation or regulation.

Excerpts from the report brief

Good health is not merely the result of good medical care but the result of what we do as a society to create the conditions in which people can be healthy. Public policy can be one of the most effective approaches to protecting and improving the health of the population. Unlike the one-on-one care provided by clinicians, laws, regulations, and other policies can affect the health of millions. This makes “healthy” public policy particularly important in a time of scarce resources, because it can diminish or preclude the need for other, more costly and potentially less efficient interventions.

The IOM report addresses three categories of law and public policy pertinent to health:

1. Laws that establish the structure, function, and authority of government public health agencies at the federal, state, and local levels.

2. Statutes and other policies that are designed to achieve specific health objectives, for example, taxing tobacco products and requiring immunization for school entry.

3. Policies in other areas of government, such as education, transportation, land use planning, and agriculture, that have health effects. In this area, intersectoral strategies are necessary—non-health agencies can contribute to improving health by considering the health implications of their policies. vices as the standard of practice in public health.

The report makes recommendations in these areas

• Laws and policies should be updated to reflect current science, practice, socioeconomic conditions, and goals such as the CDC’s 10 essential public health services***
• Legal and policy tools should be more effectively used, including regulations, taxation, and modification of the environment (as bicycle paths).
• Inclusion of all health policy stakeholders should be encouraged to prevent unintended negative consequences of health policy and legislation. Examples includeThese stakeholders are potential allies in addressing related issues outside of the health sector, as housing, employment, and education arenas.

***From the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention site

he Essential Public Health Services provide the fundamental framework for the NPHPSP instruments, by describing the public health activities that should be undertaken in all communities.

The Core Public Health Functions Steering Committee developed the framework for the Essential Services in 1994. This steering committee included representatives from US Public Health Service agencies and other major public health organizations.

The Essential Services provide a working definition of public health and a guiding framework for the responsibilities of local public health systems.

1. Monitor health status to identify and solve community health problems.
2. Diagnose and investigate health problems and health hazards in the community.
3. Inform, educate, and empower people about health issues.
4. Mobilize community partnerships and action to identify and solve health problems.
5. Develop policies and plans that support individual and community health efforts.
6. Enforce laws and regulations that protect health and ensure safety.
7. Link people to needed personal health services and assure the provision of health care when otherwise unavailable.
8. Assure competent public and personal health care workforce.
9. Evaluate effectiveness, accessibility, and quality of personal and population-based health services.
10. Research for new insights and innovative solutions to health problems.

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