Disclaimer: Moving Health Care Upstream is a collaborative effort originally co-led by Nemours Children’s Health and the Center for Healthier Children, Families & Communities at the University of California- Los Angeles (UCLA). The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Nemours, UCLA or the Moving Health Care Upstream initiative.

Nemours Children’s Health Experts Outline Key Population Health Strategies in International Journal

Authors address school health centers, population health networks, pediatric payment models

Nemours Children’s Health is pleased to share highlights from a special section on population health published in the February edition of Current Opinion in Pediatrics.

The special section includes an invited editorial from Kara Odom Walker, MD, MPH, MSHS, executive vice president and chief population health officer at Nemours Children’s Health, as well as three review articles from Nemours Children’s experts. The three Nemours-authored review articles summarize current evidence and provide a framework for strategies to advance key aspects of pediatric population health: population health networks, alternate payment models, and school-based health centers. The special section includes three additional articles from other noted experts in the field. Four of the six articles are open access, available at no cost to the field at large. [Read more…]

Disclaimer: Moving Health Care Upstream is a collaborative effort originally co-led by Nemours Children’s Health and the Center for Healthier Children, Families & Communities at the University of California- Los Angeles (UCLA). The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Nemours Children’s, UCLA or the Moving Health Care Upstream initiative.

Moving the needle on measures of health and wellbeing for everyone living in a community requires collaboration between systems and sectors.

Bringing systems, sectors, and resources together to foster healthy, thriving communities is part of being a population health integrator. In addition to setting the table for population health networks to exist, integrators are organizations that agree to share responsibility for activities that strengthen and sustain networks- ensuring that network governance and leadership structures are inclusive, establishing data-sharing among network partners, building partner capacity, establishing joint advocacy agendas, planning for network sustainability, and the list goes on…

• With limited time and resources, how can population health integrators decide WHICH integrative activities to prioritize?
• And once they’ve decided, HOW do networks put these activities into action within day-to-day network operations?
• These action-oriented toolkits guide networks in making smart choices about which integrative activities to focus on and how to move into action as they collaborate to build health- including tools for assessment, alignment, action planning, and implementation.

We invite you to share your reflections and insights on the tools by emailing us at [email protected].

Toolkits were developed by Nemours Children’s Health as part of its Exploring the Roles & Functions of Health Systems within Population Health Integrator Networks initiative, with support from The Kresge Foundation.

Disclaimer: Moving Health Care Upstream is a collaborative effort originally co-led by Nemours Children’s Health System (Nemours) and the Center for Healthier Children, Families & Communities at the University of California- Los Angeles (UCLA). The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Nemours, UCLA or the Moving Health Care Upstream initiative.

Between January and September of 2020, nine population networks from across the country participated in Nemours’ Integrator Learning Lab; a learning-and-action collaborative in which multi-sector teams (including health care organizations) working on shared population health goals have an opportunity to receive self-directed resources, coaching, and technical assistance on issues presenting challenges to their network. The 2020 Integrator Learning Lab focused on strengthening use of integrative roles and functions within cross-sector networks. Since “Continuous Use of a Health Equity Lens” is a category within Nemours framework of essential integrative activities, it was a focal area for coaching and technical assistance in the Learning Lab.

[Read more…]

Disclaimer: Moving Health Care Upstream is a collaborative effort originally co-led by Nemours Children’s Health System (Nemours) and the Center for Healthier Children, Families & Communities at the University of California- Los Angeles (UCLA). The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Nemours, UCLA or the Moving Health Care Upstream initiative.

Between January and September of 2020, nine population networks from across the country participated in Nemours’ Integrator Learning Lab, a learning-and-action collaborative in which multi-sector teams (including health care organizations) working on shared population health goals have an opportunity to receive self-directed resources, coaching, and technical assistance on issues presenting challenges to their network. The 2020 Integrator Learning Lab focused on strengthening use of integrative roles and functions within cross-sector networks.
[Read more…]

Disclaimer: Moving Health Care Upstream is a collaborative effort originally co-led by Nemours Children’s Health System (Nemours) and the Center for Healthier Children, Families & Communities at the University of California- Los Angeles (UCLA). The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Nemours, UCLA or the Moving Health Care Upstream initiative.

Integrative Activities: What Are They & What Value Do They Bring to Population Health Networks?

Integrative Activities are the governance, oversight, and administrative functions that enable population health networks to carry out tasks and strategies related to the network’s shared population health goals. Like an engine, integrative activities propel networks forward.

Over the last two years, Nemours has been exploring the ways integrative activities can be used to strengthen population health networks. This has included revisiting the framework of integrative activities Nemours presented in 2012 and understanding the value of strategic use of integrative activities.

[Read more…]