Sick Individuals / Sick Populations

In order to develop appropriate interventions to advance population health, Interdisciplinary teams are critical. In this episode, we spoke to Sandro Galea, Dean of the Boston University School of Public Health and key thought leader in population health to understand how he approaches interdisciplinary scholarship.

The challenges of climate change and environmental disasters for population health are mounting. We're joined by Nick Shapiro, an interdisciplinary environmental health researcher and anthropologist, to learn about how he's built out his innovative program of research weaving together justice, environment, data, and ethnography, and translating research to action.

Sick Individuals/Sick Populations comes to you LIVE from Minneapolis. We're joined by first-time conference go-ers, our conference chairs, seasoned IAPHS veterans, and more surprise guests to debrief our return to IAPHS annual in-person conference. Disclaimer: The sound quality for this episode is quiet during some sections. We hope you still enjoy this episode!

In preparation for the 2022 IAPHS Conference, we chat with this year's conference chairs, Sean Valles and Kat Theall, to learn more about what to look forward to for this year's conference

Podcast #9 Looking Ahead in an Unfinished Journey References: Kindig DA. 2015. Can There Be Political Common Ground for Improving Population Health? Milbank Q 93(1):24–27. Kindig DA. 2007. Understanding Population Health Terminology. Milbank Q 85(1):139-161. Kindig D, Nobles J, Zidan M. 2018. Meeting the Institute of Medicine's 2030 US Life Expectancy Target. Am J Public Health108(1):87-92. McCullough JM, Speer M, Magnan S, Fielding JE, Kindig D, Teutsch SM. 2020. Reduction in US Health Care Spending Required to Meet the Institute of Medicine's 2030 Target. Am J Public Health 110(12):1735-1740. Hughes-Cromwick P, Kindig D, Magnan S, Gourevitch M, Teutsch 2021. The Reallocationists Versus the Direct Allocationists. Health Affairs Forefront. August 6. https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/forefront.20210729.55316 Kindig D. 2022. The Promise of Population Health: A Scenario for the Next Two Decades. NAM Perspectives. Commentary, National Academy of Medicine. Washington, DC. https://doi.org/10.31478/202203a Kindig D. 2020. A Population Health Boot Camp. https://iaphs.org/a-population-health-boot-camp/ Wagstaff A. 2002. Inequality aversion, health inequalities and health achievement. J Health Econ 21(4):627–41. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12146594/

Podcast #8 Population Health Equity: Crucial and Complicated Sanne asks Dave why a paper he worked on for three years “Thinking Clearly, Speaking Frankly about Health Equity” was never published…and whether the many complications of population health equity can detract from crucial action. ****Attach the Unpublished Draft Kindig Paper “Thinking Clearly and Speaking Frankly about Health Equity: Good and Fair Population Health” References: Asada Y, Whipp A, Kindig D, Billard B, Rudolph B. 2014. Inequalities in Multiple Health Outcomes by Education, Sex, and Race in 93 US Counties: Why We Should Measure Them All. Int J Equity Health 13:47. https://doi.org/10.1186/1475-9276-13-47 Kindig D, Lardinois N, Chatterjee D. 2016. Can States Simultaneously Improve Health Outcomes and Reduce Health Outcome Disparities? Prev Chronic Dis 13:160126. http://dx.doi.org/10.5888/pcd13.160126 Kindig D, Lardinois N, Asada Y, Mullahy J. 2018. Considering Mean and Inequality Health Outcomes Together: the Population Health Performance Index. Int J Equity Health 17:25. DOI 10.1186/s12939-018-0731-2. Givens ML, Kindig D, Inzeo PT, Faust V. 2018. Power: The Most Fundamental Cause of Health Inequity? Health Affairs Blog Feb 1. https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/forefront.20180129.731387/full/ Gundersen G, Pray L. 2009. Leading causes of life: five fundamentals to change the way you live your life. Abingdon Press, Nashville Tennessee.

Podcast #7 Population Health Equity:  Finding Common Ground Dave explains his provocative and contrarian statement: “The effort to reduce health disparities is hindered by viewing health equity only in terms of racial inequities.” And he argues for seeing inequities through multiple lenses to find common ground. References: Kindig DA. 2015. Can There Be Political Common Ground for Improving Population Health? Milbank Q 93(1):24–27. Haidt J. 2012. The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion. New York, NY. Pantheon Books. Isenberg N. 2016. White Trash: the 400-Year Untold History of Class in America. New York, New York. Viking. Kindig D. 2017. Population Health Equity: Rate and Burden, Race and Class. JAMA 317(5):467-468. Kindig DA. 2020. Using Uncommon Data to Promote Common Ground for Reducing Infant Mortality. Milbank Q 98(1):18–21.

Podcast #6 It's All About the Money Sanne probes Dave's efforts to promote rebalancing to upstream investments, calling in 2015 for per capita investment benchmarks for all determinants. He discusses the potential but yet unrealized promise of ACO Shared Savings, the Hospital Community Benefit IRS requirement, and local health outcome trusts. References: Kindig DA, Isham G. 2014. Population Health Improvement: A Community Health Business Model That Engages Partners in All Sectors. Front Health Serv Manage 30(4):3-20. Rosenbaum S, Kindig DA, Bao J, Byrnes M, O'Laughlin C. 2015. The Value of the Nonprofit Hospital Tax Exemption Was $24.6 Billion in 2011. Health Affairs 34(7):1225-1233. https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/10.1377/hlthaff.2014.1424 Bakken E, Kindig DA. 2012. Is Hospital Community Benefit Charity Care? Wisconsin Medical Journal 111(5):215-219. Kindig D. 2016. To Launch and Sustain Local Health Outcome Trusts, Focus On ‘Backbone Resources'. Health Affairs Blog February 10. https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/forefront.20160210.053102/full/ Kindig D. 2015. From Health Determinant Benchmarks to Health Investment Benchmarks. Chronic Dis 12:150010. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5888/pcd12.150010 Kindig DA, Milstein B. 2018. A Balanced Investment Portfolio for Equitable Health and Well-Being Is an Imperative, and Within Reach. Health Affairs 37(4):579-584. https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2017.1463

Podcast #5 Picking Up Steam 2006-2014 County Health Rankings Model Dave tells us about how the population health idea began to catch on, in scholarship as well as in the County Health Rankings, Federal Medicare and Medicaid. The momentum continued in his blog and the founding of the Institute of Medicine Roundtable on Population Health Improvement …saying to Robert Wood Johnson  “…they couldn't say no”. References: Kindig DA, Asada Y, Booske B. 2008. A Population Health Framework for Setting National and State Health Goals. JAMA 299(17):2081-2083. Kindig D. 2008. Beyond the Triple Aim: Integrating the Nonmedical Sectors. Health Affairs Blog May 19. https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/forefront.20080519.000393/full/ Peppard PE, Kindig DA, Dranger E, Jovaag A, Remington PL. 2008. Ranking Community Health Status to Stimulate Discussion of Local Public Health Issues: The Wisconsin County Health Rankings. Am J Public Health 98(2):209-212. Kindig DA, Booske BC, Remington PL. 2010. Mobilizing Action Toward Community Health (MATCH): Metrics, Incentives, and Partnerships for Population Health. Prev Chronic Dis 7(4). https://www.cdc.gov/pcd/collections/pdf/PCD_MATCH_2010_web.pdf Kindig D. Feb 3, 2017. https://iaphs.org/improving-population-health-continuing-journey/ Kindig D. 2011-2014. Improving Population Health: Ideas and Action. Electronic blog collection (43 posts). https://uwphi.pophealth.wisc.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/316/2018/03/blog-collection-final-2014-04-05.pdf 7. The Roundtable on Population Health Improvement. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. https://www.nationalacademies.org/our-work/roundtable-on-population-health-improvement

Podcast #4 The Lonely Years Sanne encourages Dave to explain why he describes this period of slow up-take as “lonely,” despite several major presentations, and how a rejected paper returned to prominence. References: Kindig DA. 1999. Beyond Health Services Research (Association for Health Services Research (AHSR) Presidential Speech). Health Services Research 34(1):205-214. Kindig DA. 2006. A Pay-for-Population Health Performance System. JAMA 296(21):2611-2613. Kindig DA. 2007. Understanding Population Health Terminology. Milbank Q 85(1):139-161.  

Podcast #3 What is Population Health? Dave discusses the evolution of his definition of population health to his most cited 2003 paper and clarifies ongoing confusion with the terms “public health” and “population health management”. References: Kindig D, Stoddart G. 2003. What is Population Health? Am J of Public Health 93(3): 380-383. Kindig D. 2015. What Are We Talking About When We Talk About Population Health? Health Affairs Blog April 6. 1377/forefront.20150406.046151 https://www.nationalacademies.org/our-work/roundtable-on-population-health-improvement    

Podcast #2 The Story Behind the Book Purchasing Population Health Evans and Stoddart 1990 Field Model - Used with permissionEvans RG, Stoddart GL. 1990. Producing Health, Consuming Health Care. Soc Sci Med 31(12):1347-1363. Dave explores with Sanne the seminal, Canadian influence and how his sabbatical intellectual paralysis in York England almost resulted in no book. He reminds us of the only italicized sentence in the seminal Evans and Stoddart 1990 paper: “A society that spends so much on health care that it cannot or will not spend adequately on other health enhancing activities may actually be reducing the health of its population.” Kindig DA. 1997. Purchasing Population Health: Paying for Results TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1. Purchasing Population Health: A Vision Chapter 2. Taking Our Temperature:  How Healthy Are We? Chapter 3. The High Cost of Health Care: Are We Getting the Most for Our Money? Chapter 4. Measuring Health Outcomes Chapter 5. The Multiple Determinants of Health Chapter 6. Can Rationing Be Rational? Balancing the Determinants of Health Chapter 7. Managing Boundaries Chapter 8. Different Populations, Different Needs? Chapter 9. Making It Happen Chapter 10. The Case for Action, The Price of Inertia References for the Podcast: 1. Evans RG, Stoddart GL. 1990. Producing Health, Consuming Health Care. Soc Sci Med 31(12):1347-1363. 2. Evans RG, Barer ML, Marmor TR, editors. 1994. Why Are Some People Healthy and Others Not? The Determinants of Health of Populations. New York: Aldine de Gruyter. 3. Kindig DA. 1997. Purchasing Population Health: Paying for Results. University of Michigan Press: Ann Arbor, MI.

Population Health: the Unfinished Journey with David Kindig Episode 1: Once Upon A Time Dave discusses his South Bronx roots of seeing "health" vs only healthcare, and how an unfavorable, chance encounter with the Chair of Pediatrics changed his career forever. References: Kindig DA. 1992. The Health Care System Should Produce Health. On Wisconsin September/October. p.25. Evans RG, Stoddart GL. 1990. Producing Health, Consuming Health Care. Soc Sci Med 31(12):1347-1363.   We thank the staff of IAPHS for the production and support of this podcast. Visit: https://iaphs.org/the-unfinished-journey/ to learn more about this podcast series.

What exactly is epidemiology and how is it different from population health? Why do sub-fields like social epidemiology exist? In this crossover episode, which we realize must sound like a nerdy jam session, with Epi Counts co-host Ghassan Hamra, we riff on our perspectives of the fields, how they are similar and different, including some spicy hot takes on various controversies and subfields. We're not sure if we actually answered any of the questions above but we had fun talking and hope that you enjoy listening to our discussion.

Closing off our “Meet our Hosts” series we're joined by Mike Esposito, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Washington University in St Louis. Join us as we learn about his path from Missouri-to-Seattle and back, why he picked Sociology as a field and his brief dabble with political sociology, and growing up as a chess prodigy.

We continue our “Meet our Hosts” series with co-host Aresha Martinez-Cardoso, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Health Science at the University of Chicago. Aresha gives us insight into how her work has been inspired by her own life growing up in immigrant communities in California and reflects on the early wins and challenges of her career so far. We also get to learn about her attempts at getting on reality TV.

This episode kicks of our “Meet Our Host” series where we interview our fellow co-host to share more about their work, life, and passion for population health. To kick us off we're joined by Darrell Hudson, Associate Professor in the Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St Louis. Darrel shares more about how his life growing up in Detroit has informed his career, working on early research on stress and health at Morehouse, and his secret comedic powers.

Nutrition is critical in the production of health and health inequities across the lifecourse and in utero. We were fortunate to have Epidemiology Superstar Lisa Bodnar, Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health to join us for this episode. Professor Bodnar dropped lots of yummy, thoughtful nuggets for us to consume, ranging from funding one's research agenda to maintaining one's sanity while perpetually underwater  to developing a popular podcast—Shiny Epi People.

Across the country, workers have become increasingly disengaged and dissatisfied with their work,  searching for other job opportunities or a break from work altogether in what economists are calling “The Great Resignation.”  At the same time, workplaces have attempted to  enhance worker wellbeing during the pandemic and expand DEI efforts. In today's episode we're joined by work and diversity scholar Courtney McCluney, an assistant professor of Organizational Behavior in the ILR School at Cornell University, to chat about her trajectory of research on work, where employers are succeeding and failing their workers, and how researchers can effectively share their research insights in the private space.

In 2021 state-based abortion restrictions swelled across the country and a powerful challenge to Roe v Wade, the Supreme Court decision that protects a pregnant person's right to choose to have an abortion, will be decided in the Supreme Court this year. All admist a backdrop of pervasive disparities in access to family planning, prenatal care, and maternal and child mortality across race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status. In this episode, we're joined by Dr. Tiffany Green, Assistant Professor in the Departments of Population Health Sciences and Obstetrics & Gynecology at UW-Madison, and Dr Lina Maria Murillo, Assistant Professor in the Departments of Gender, Women's and Sexuality Studies, History, and Latina/o/x Studies at the University of Iowa, to help us understand the history of reproductive rights and justice and what might lie ahead given the current policy context.

For our first episode of 2022 we're joined by Jesus Ramirez-Valles, a researcher and director of the Health Equity Institute at SF State who has traversed tenure-track faculty positions, led academic departments and research centers, and headed up leading journals in public health. Jesus reflects on his career promoting health equity and training the next generation of diverse scholars, as well as the challenges along the way.

We all know the importance of socioeconomic resources in relation to health. There are countless studies conducted over decades that continue to demonstrate socioeconomic resources such as income affect a wide range of outcomes. Despite the extensive documentation of the importance of socioeconomic resources, especially income, as they relate to health and health inequities, the field of population health spends much less time considering how to get money into the hands of people who need it. One solution is the implementation of guaranteed income programs. In this episode, we are joined by Dr. Lorraine Dean, Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Health Management and Policy at Johns Hopkins University, to discuss guaranteed income initiatives and more.

Sleep is often referred to as the third life, as we literally spend about a third of our lives sleep. And while we may not be conscious, there is a massive amount of physiological activity occurring during sleep. Therefore, the effects of sleep, both quantity and quality, on overall health and well-being are tremendous. Additionally, researchers have linked aspects of sleep to racial/ethnic and socioeconomic health inequities. In this episode, we are joined by Dr. Dayna Johnson, Assistant Professor of Epidemiology at Emory University. Dr. Johnson's investigates the root causes of sleep health disparities and their impact on cardiovascular disease. Join us as we discuss the many effects of sleep on health and health equity.

In this very special episode of Sick Individuals/Sick Populations, we're broadcasting live from the floor of the 2021 IAPHS Annual Meeting! Join our hosts as they chat with conference-goers about the research they're presenting during the meeting; exciting sessions that they've attended so far; and their general, overall (virtual) conference experience.

With the federal COVID-19 unemployment relief ending, and the paradox of high rates of unemployment coupled with millions of unfilled jobs, we're joined by Quan Mai, Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Rutgers, to discuss the state of work in the US and across the globe. Join us as we discuss good jobs, bad jobs, and precarious-gig work. We chat about how the job market evolved historically and politically and the implications of precarious work for social inequality, adult transitions, and health.

With the Fall job market on the horizon, we're joined by three guests, Drs Akilah Wise, Alana Inlow, and Alexis Santos-Lozada, who share their journeys navigating their professional careers while aiming to strike a balance with their personal identities, goals, and interests. Join us as we learn how these early-career scholars learned how to find their fit and follow their passions throughout their careers. This episode was envisioned and organized by the IAPHS Student Committee.

In the midst that is happening all around us in the United States right now, it is easy to lose sight of what is happening across the globe. Haiti is a country rich in history and culture that has experienced a great deal of misfortune, historically and contemporarily. Just in the last six weeks, there has been a presidential assassination, an earthquake and torrential storms all while rates of Covid-19 have surged. In this episode, we were joined by Dr. Lora Iannotti, a global health researcher who has been working in Haiti for several decades. We discussed the historical context of Haiti, the unique challenges the country has faced and what solutions are needed to lead to sustainable progress in Haiti.

Welcome back for another episode of Sick Individuals/ Sick Populations. In this episode, we were fortunate to be joined by Dr. Adia Harvey Wingfield, the Mary Tileston Hemenway Professor of Arts & Sciences and Vice Dean for Faculty Development and Diversity in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. Her research examines how and why racial and gender inequality persists in professional occupations. Her most recent book, Flatlining: Race, Work, and Health Care in the New Economy, won the 2019 C. Wright Mills Award. In our wide ranging conversation, we discussed the impact of the pandemic on health workers, particularly Black American providers who were already marginalized and bearing a disproportionate burden prior to the pandemic. Dr. Harvey Wingfield also shed light on what companies and organizations should be doing to support equity beyond hashtags and statements. Link to the book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520300347/flatlining

On this episode of Sick Individuals/Sick Populations, we wrap up the inaugural season of our podcast. Join our hosts as they recap their favorite moments from the first season, reflect on what they've learned in conversation with our podcast guests, and preview what we have in store for Season 2.

One of the key determinants of health considered to drive health inequities is socioeconomic status. Many scholars, practitioners and policy makers believe that increases in socioeconomic status will eliminate health gaps, especially racial/ethnic inequities. However, the story is a lot more complicated than that. In this episode, we unpack some important nuances about the relationship between socioeconomic status and health with two leading population health researchers, Cindy Colen and Katrina Walsemann.

One year into the COVID-19 pandemic, we reflect on the important ways population health scientists have contributed to the pandemic response by chatting with Drs Lindsey Leininger and Amanda Simanek, two members of the Those Nerdy Girls who lead Dear Pandemic website and social media platforms. Dear Pandemic uses social media to answer people's pandemic-related questions, aiming to cut through the swirl of disinformation on the web with clear and concise communication.  Join us as we learn how Dear Pandemic got started and emerged, how the team is communicating science in innovative ways, and the lessons the Nerdy Girls have learned about their science and professional development with this project.  Listeners can learn more about Dear Pandemic here: https://dearpandemic.org/

We are just in the first few months of 2021 but there is already quite a bit to digest. On the heels of a year of racial reckoning with the punctuation of the January 6 insurrection, deep societal fractures have been revealed. While surprising to many Americans, for many people, especially the outstanding scholars who contributed to this episode, these recent events are products as a continual manifestation of the legacy of racism that undergirds the United States. If racial equity in health, socioeconomics and other outcomes are a goal of population health, it is clear that we must disrupt historical legacies of racism that have continued to affect contemporary issues. We were pleased to be joined by Professors David Cunningham and Geoff Ward, both from Washington University in St. Louis. Professor David Cunningham is the Chair of Sociology at Washington University in St. Louis. His research focuses on racial contention and its legacies. Dr. Geoff Ward is Professor of African and African-American Studies and a faculty affiliate in the Department of Sociology and American Culture Studies Program at Washington University in St. Louis. His scholarship examines the racial politics of social control and the pursuit of racial justice, historically and today. Listeners can find Professor Cunningham's latest book, Klansville, USA: The Rise and Fall of the Civil Rights-Era Ku Klux Klan here. Professors Ward and Cunningham are editing a forthcoming special issue  for The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science “Legacies of Racial Violence: Clarifying and Addressing the Presence of the Past” with an anticipated publishing in May 2021.

By the time of this recording, the COVID-19 pandemic has been raging on for just over a year. Although the arrival of effective vaccinations signals that we are headed towards the end of this unprecedented moment, we are likely only beginning to grapple with the ways in which the virus has fundamentally altered our society. One place where fallout from COVID-19 is already being actualized is academia. From stories on the ground, this pandemic has created a set of previously unimaginable challenges for scholars across the board---but particularly for assistant professors, post-docs, and graduate students of color. In this episode of Sick Individuals/Sick Populations, we welcome Sandte Stanley, Dr. Zelma Oyarvide Tuthill, and Kevin Martinez-Folgar to share their experiences in navigating the pandemic as early career scholars. We chat about how COVID has impacted our guests' professional goals; discuss what type of support we would like to see our academic institutions develop in to help scholars navigate the uncertainty of a post-COVID world; and chat about how the "dual pandemics" of racial violence and COVID-19 have coalesced to impact our guests' work and personal well-being. This episode is sponsored by the Student Committee of IAPHS.

Whether covering your face during a pandemic or developing policies that create equitable access to health promoting resources and healthcare, politics are involved. As we consider population level policies and practices capable improving the health and well-being of people around the globe, one of the biggest barriers is not funding. It's political will. Unfortunately, it seems that our current political climate is toxic. We were fortunate to talk to Dr. Nadia Brown, Associate Professor of Political Science and African American Studies at Purdue University, to help us understand our nation's current political moment. Dr. Brown's current book, Sister Style, published by Oxford University Press, was just recently released. Listeners may enter (ASFLYQ6) for a 30% discount on the book.

At this stage of the pandemic, the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine is absolutely critical if we seek to return to any semblance of normalcy in the foreseeable future. Despite the development of multiple, highly effective vaccines, we have all been frustrated with the slow rollout as well as the inequitable dissemination of the vaccine to date. For this episode, we were very fortunate to be joined by Dr. Mati Htlatswayo Davis, an infectious disease specialist at Washington University and the Veterans Administration Healthcare System in St. Louis. Htlatswayo Davis has regularly interacts with patients and discusses the vaccine and considers the broad population health implications of the current pandemic and how we can get more people vaccinated.

For population health scientists, community-research partnerships are often thought of as one avenue to build equity and social justice into research by working with communities to build the tools and resources to addresses health inequities. But how can we ensure that these partnerships work effectively, and what unique opportunities does community based research offer population health? In this episode we chat with the leaders of the Sunnyside Strong Collaborative in Houston, Felicia Jackson, Family Support Services Manager at the Houston Area Urban League, Rachel Kimbro, PhD, a sociologist at Rice University, and Quianta Moore, MD, JD and a Fellow in Child Health Policy at the Baker Institute for Public Policy. This team was recently awarded IAPHS' Community Research Partnership Award to recognize excellence in collaboration between community groups and population health researchers. Join us to unpack how this team developed an award-winning research collaboration, the lessons they learned, and where their work is going next. Learn more about Sunnyside Strong by checking out the team's summary report.

A structural understanding of racial inequalities has begun to take root across the U.S. Public health stakeholders, citizens activists, and lawmakers, at even the highest level of government, have indeed begun to consider that interventions to combat racial health inequity must be designed with systemic racism in mind. In this episode of Sick Individuals/Sick Populations, we speak with several scholars from the University of Michigan's Racism Lab--a transdisciplinary collective at the forefront of scholarship on structural racism--about the crucial contributions of a structural racism framework for the current historical moment. Join us as we chat with Kayla Fike; Ramona Perry; and Dr. Myles Durkee about their research on racial inequality; their advice for building out a productive interdisciplinary group; and the upcoming RacismLab symposium, Toxic Equilibrium, which will focus on structural racism and population welfare.

Happy New Year! We are excited to share our first episode of 2021. We were fortunate to speak to the IAPHS President, Dr. Kathie Mullan Harris, and Conference Co-Chairs, Drs. Maggie Hicken and Hedy Lee, who stopped by to tell us about their plans for this year's conference, themed Racism, Power, and Justice: Achieving Population Health Equity. This theme is highly relevant given the current events of the day. Dr. Hicken also shared information with us about the upcoming joint IAPHS and University of Michigan Racism Lab symposium called Toxic Equilibrium: Structural Racism & Population Health Inequities on February 24th. More information about the symposium can be found here.

Increasingly, researchers and policymakers are designing place typologies to understand distributions of place characteristics that influence population health and to inform policy response options. This growth is fueled in part by expanded access to small area data and the availability of new statistical approaches. By identifying how sociodemographic, economic, and population characteristics align across places, typologies can elucidate patterns in what can otherwise be highly complex matrices of disparate data. Typologies thus serve an important descriptive function that enables policymakers in different places to have a common understanding of issues at stake. Characterizing how patterns and trends are associated with improved or worsened health outcomes may also serve to inform policy change opportunities to support improvements in population health, by either spotlighting trends or learning from outliers. At the same time, many users also identify limitations in the use of typologies for prediction purposes. In this episode, speakers will present recent empirical work or works-in-progress to categorize cities or other places into typologies based on essential socioeconomic, population and other characteristics. Speakers will discuss uses and limitations of typologies as tools to inform policy, as well as efforts to assess associations with health and health disparity outcomes. Session Chairs: Lorna Thorpe and Dante Chinni Presenters: Justin Feldman, Usama Bilal, Ari Pinkus

Recent outbreaks of vaccine preventable diseases such as measles have heightened concern over suboptimal vaccination rates. Undervaccination may be due to access barriers, hesitancy over the safety and effectiveness of vaccination, or both. A variety of strategies exist to encourage greater vaccine uptake, including increasing access to vaccination services, improving vaccine education among youth and parents, providing incentives such as financial bonuses to parents with up-to-date children, and mandating vaccination of schoolchildren without approved exemptions. Child vaccine mandates are ubiquitous in the USA and employed internationally in various ways. Vaccine mandates vary in several key elements, including: target population, what is required, consequences for noncompliance, who is in charge of enforcement, and—perhaps most hotly debated—procedures for exemption. In US states, efforts to remove religious and philosophical exemptions, for example, have become hotly politicized and subject to backlash including protests and ballot measure recall efforts. While the legal and ethical dimensions of such policies are often discussed, conclusions regarding the effectiveness of mandates as a strategy—particularly when they are met with public resistance—remains a thorny issue, as context and implementation factors likely play a substantial role in the success of mandate policies. This interactive panel will present a range of evidence-based perspectives on the question: Are mandates the way forward for population vaccine coverage? Panelists from multiple disciplines will describe their research using different approaches to assess the effectiveness of vaccine mandate policies and assert a stance regarding the use of mandates as a policy lever. The moderator will facilitate a lively question and answer session following these presentations, inviting the audience to participate in the dialogue around how to study and implement policy on this challenging topic. Session Chair: Devon Greyson Presenters: Richard Carpiano, Kolina Koltai, Andrea Polonijo

The relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and health is very robust. In this episode, we discuss the role of SES on health outcomes, particularly the pathways and mechanisms that link education to a variety of health outcomes. Join us to hear from Jarron Saint Onge, Anna Zajacova, Taylor Hargrove and Tarlise Townsend, experts in the area of education and health, as they highlight findings from their innovative research to better explain the education-health gradient. The topics discussed are timey and important, especially considering the role of context (e.g. neighborhood) on this gradient. We hope you enjoy! Session Chair: Jarron Saint-Onge Presenters: Tarlise Townsend, Taylor Hargrove, Anna Zajacova

This episode brings forth interdisciplinary discussions at the intersections of public health, history, and Latina/o/x communities. We want to explicitly link events and movements in US Latinx history to current public health issues. For this panel, experts in Latinx history and public health are paired to discuss ways in which historical events set precedence and foundations for continued and ongoing disparities in health for generations of Latinx. As such, we hope to bridge a massive intellectual and disciplinary divide between the humanities and social sciences at a time when cross-pollination is sorely needed to address health disparities for historically marginalized and racialized communities in the United States. Session Chair: Lina-Maria Murillo Presenters: Jason Daniel-Ulloa, Heather Sinclair, Nicole Novak, John McKiernan-Gonzalez

Population health scientists have been probing questions related to race, place, and health for decades, and we know that where one lives is consequential for a whole host of health outcomes. But what are the mechanisms by which place shapes health? How do we define place and measure neighborhoods? Can we leverage multiple measures of social and environmental characteristics to quantify “healthy” neighborhoods? Finally, since race is Inextricably  linked with neighborhoods, how do we clarify the links between race, place, and health? In this podcast episode, we bring together several researchers who were part of the Race, Place, and Health panel at the 2020 IAPHS Virtual Conference to share some of their latest work and dig into some of these challenging  methodological and conceptual questions. Session Chair: Adam Lippert Presenters: Ahuva Jacovowitz, Rachel Berkowitz, Jamaica Robinson

Recent events in the United States have placed race and racism at the center of the national conversation. Highlighted, perhaps most notably, by drastic racial inequities in COVID-19 outcomes and several high-profile killings of black civilians by law enforcement, systems of racism that have characterized the U.S. since its inception have become broadly visible, even to those who once might have ignored said fundamental structure. Rich and longstanding population health research, which demonstrates the profound inequities engendered by racism, is being widely considered in the current moment as a consequence. With research on racial health disparities receiving widespread attention, it's worthwhile to evaluate the assumptions and research decisions that typically underlie this useful literature. In this podcast, we feature a discussion from an interdisciplinary team of researchers on how population health scientists choose to measure, code and use race and ethnicity in their work. We discuss how defining race in health studies is a slippery, assumption-filled task; how the conceptualization and measurement of race and ethnicity fluctuates across disciplinary boundaries; and how health scholars have chosen to, historically, operationalize race and demonstrate inequities. This episode corresponds to the IAPHS “Beyond the Boxes” blog series. This collaborative series addresses issues, explores nuances, and provides guiding questions for researchers at any stage and of any discipline to do a better job in the way they think, talk, and use race and ethnicity in their work. Session Chair: Michael Esposito Presenters: Rae Anne Martinez, Nafeesa Andrabi, Andrea Goodwin

Billed as an election for the soul of the nation, the 2020 election was pivotal and contentious. There were more votes cast than ever before and the results reveal a deeply polarized country. Join us on  Sick Individuals, Sick Populations as our co-hosts discuss the results of the presidential election and its population health implications.

Political economies of health are not only national in scale; they are reproduced at the local level. Policies and practices, created and enforced by local government entities, determine who is welcomed, who is counted, and who holds power. This session draws on the coupled disciplines of urban planning and social work - two fields tasked with protecting local community-level health and well-being - to examine how who is welcomed, who is counted, and who holds power determines health outcomes. These themes will be supported with case examples of feminist neighborhood political ecology, changing political units, and place-based power dynamics that prevent communities from attaining full health and well-being. Panelists will incorporate diverse jurisdictional and geographical boundaries to explore how these themes present in cities, suburbs, unincorporated territories, borders, and rural areas across the US. This interactive session will feature researchers who are countering traditional boundaries of place and power through innovative methods and approaches to meet the needs of rural and urban communities. The first segment of the panel will focus on a discussion of participatory methods that confront local power dynamics, bring visibility to uncounted populations, and reverse political and social exclusion. Each researcher will share their story and experience utilizing participatory research methodologies within and outside the fields of social work and planning. In the second segment of the presentation panelists will conclude with a reflection on the potential for greater municipal level cross-sector partnerships to achieve a culture of health and engage the audience in a discussion related to place and power with the goal of reflecting on cross-disciplinary experiences. Session Chair: Patrice Williams Presenters: Monica Gutierrez, Cristina Gomez-Vidal, Kristi Roybal, Jennifer Whittaker

At its core, the field of global health strives to create more equitable relationships between people and places around the world. However, the contemporary global health discourse lacks critical consideration of the historical background, political context, and disproportionate power dynamics of the current, Western-dominated system. Nearly every aspect of global health from agenda-setting to financing, funding, data collection, publishing, and research dissemination is dominated by the Global North. For example, of the 198 global health organizations around the world, less than 15% are located outside of North America or Western Europe (Global Health 50/50, 2019). Also, a number of recent studies have highlighted the fact that African researchers are under-represented in first and last authorship positions in papers published from research conducted in Africa (Mbaye et al., 2019; Hedt-Gauthier et al., 2019). This discussion brings together researchers, policymakers, and others interested in identifying and correcting some of the pervasive power imbalances in global health that contribute to these inequities. By critically engaging with the shortcomings of our current global health system, we demonstrate how we can work across disciplines towards more equitable global health practice. First, we discuss how policies that are meant to improve public health can exacerbate global inequities by not accounting for the priorities and expertise of local communities. Next, we present results from qualitative interviews with healthcare professionals who deployed to the 2014–2016 West Africa Ebola epidemic to illustrate the harms that can arise as a result of relying on a Western-centric approach to healthcare volunteerism. Then, we examine ongoing trends in persistent colonization of global health that still exist through informal venues such as foreign policy. Finally, we address the extent to which accessibility of data on underserved populations can lead to further exploitation and stigmatization, and the limitations of “informed consent” in these contexts. We incorporate both research and professional experiences to inform this conversation, and will close with a moderated discussion including a synthesis of our presentations, actionable ways to decolonize global health, and strategies to overcome systemic barriers that may impede that goal. This discussion highlights the importance and challenges of cross-cultural collaborations, and lessons learned that can inform true collaborative transnational partnerships and effective global health research, practice, and policy. Session Chair: Attia Goheer Presenters: Denise St. Jean, Ezinne Nwankwo, Ans Irfan, Chioma Woko