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.

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Today Nemours Children’s Health’s Executive Vice President, Dr. Kara Odom Walker (also a member of the American Academy of Family Physicians) and Daniella Gratale, Director of the Office of Child Health Policy and Advocacy, participated in the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health (the Conference) —more than 50 years after the last conference on this topic. In collaboration with the Conference, Nemours Children’s made a commitment to help address hunger and improve nutrition and health for our nation’s children. [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, UCLA or the Moving Health Care Upstream initiative.

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On Monday, August 1, 2022, Nemours Children’s Health hosted a Pediatric Mental Health Roundtable at the Nemours Estate in Wilmington, Delaware. Special guests included U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra, U.S. Senator Tom Carper (D-DE), U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-DE), Congresswoman Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE-At-Large), Delaware’s Lieutenant Governor Bethany Hall-Long, and other community and business leaders, state officials, and area youth and families. This post describes key policy recommendations highlighted throughout the event in several areas, including pediatric mental health workforce, infrastructure, telehealth and school wellness. 

[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, UCLA or the Moving Health Care Upstream initiative.

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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.

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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 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.

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Authors:

• Joshua Ogburn, Manager of Policy
• Katie Boyer, Senior Advisor, Legislative & Regulatory Affairs
• Daniella Gratale, Director, Office of Child Health Policy & Advocacy

Poverty is the single largest driver of health according to the World Health Organization. A 2019 National Academies of Sciences report noted, “on average, a child growing up in a family whose income is below the poverty line experiences worse outcomes than a child from a wealthier family in virtually every dimension.”[i] Congress has an opportunity to ensure that children have a strong start in life by maintaining crucial anti-poverty provisions in the Build Back Better Act.

[Read more…]