What Is Population Health?

“My definition is practical. You need to define the population and decide what it is you’re going to manage and what doctors are needed. To be more specific, let me give you an example. A partnership was created with Florida International University College of Medicine and Baptist Health South Florida/South Miami Hospital to care for 100 disadvantaged families in a defined neighborhood adjacent to the hospital. It is a defined population, there are identifiable needs that can be measured and a combination of providers from the medical school and the hospital will manage the families. That is a working definition of population health management.”

“Population health is taking responsibility for managing the overall health of a defined population and being accountable for the health outcomes of that defined population.”

“Population health is improving the health of a defined population.”

“The goal of population health is to improve the quality of care and outcomes while managing costs for a defined group of people. The defined group of people and the health management interventions can be identified by demographic differences, health needs such as chronic diseases or disabilities, or the health needs of the underserved.”

“Population health signals a change in the way health care is accessed, provided and utilized — a move away from reactive responses to an individual’s health needs. The concept marks a fundamental shift towards outcomes-based, proactive approaches to a given population with attention directed toward larger, socially grouped needs and prevention efforts while reducing disparity and variation in care delivery.”

“To me, population health involves the health of the community; it implies wellness promotion as well as the treatment of new and chronic illnesses throughout the care continuum. It also implies improving the health of people previously undermanaged, such as the poor in terms of conditions such as diabetes, hypertension and cancer.”

“Accountability for the health and utilization of health care services of a defined population of individuals across the care continuum, from preventative to acute to post-acute settings.”

“Individual responsibility for physical, mental, spiritual and social health. When each person takes control of his or her health, it reflects on our families and society as a whole.”

“Population health is the acknowledgement that the goal of all health system stakeholders is to do the most good for the most people at the least amount of cost. It requires a primary care centered model that incentivizes all providers to measure their clinical performance at the population level, and it requires interface between public and private institutions along with local community engagement. Population longevity and broad values around quality of life are the ultimate measures of success and performance.”

“Population health refers to addressing the health status of a defined population. A population can be defined in many different ways including demographics, clinical diagnoses, geographic location, etc. Population health management is a clinical discipline that develops, implements and continually refines operational activities that improve the measures of health status for defined populations. At Trinity Health, we measure the health status of a population using the Triple Aim of better health, better care and lower costs.”

“I think of population health as an approach to develop research that addresses the needs of both the overall population of a state, country or region and the health of important sub-populations that can be differentiated by ethnicity, gender, health status or even economic status.”

“’Population health’ is both a means and an end. The goal is to improve the collective health status of the population at large in a given geographic area. That goal can only be accomplished through a combination of (1) behavior change, which has to be promoted in a tailored manner, using an array of appropriate tools — not only through traditional health care channels — to different subsets of the population (chronically-ill elders, new moms, engaged patients, millenials, baby-boomer weekend warriors, etc.), and (2) evidence-based medicine focused both on prevention and treatment of injury and disease and on improving function and happiness for the individuals who make up the population.”

“The overall mental and physical state of health for a defined group of people.”

“Population health is an approach to improving outcomes of a defined population. We have defined outcomes as the Triple Aim — cost, quality and experience.”

“Population health is keeping people healthy in a coordinated fashion for better clinical outcomes at a lower cost. It is a ‘proactive’ solution (with personalized care and a focus on wellness) in an industry that has thrived on being ‘reactive’ (delays in treatment resulting in sicker patients, ordering unnecessary tests and sending patients to emergency departments due to primary care access challenges).”

“Population health signifies the movement from a silo-focused delivery of medicine to a communal effort with the purpose of improving the overall health outcomes of a population.”

“Population health is a visionary statement that gives a sense of what we want for our population. A health status that allows individuals in our communities to serve one another to their greatest ability.”

“Understanding (measuring) the health of a defined population (community, covered life population, set of patients) to include all aspects of health (physical, mental, etc.) and to include the underlying determinants of that health (e.g., poverty, housing, nutrition, exercise, pollution) and, most importantly, working to improve the health of that population.”

“Population health is the health outcomes of a defined group of people, including the distribution of such outcomes within the group (Kindig et al).”

“Some would define it as determining the health of a defined group or population using health care modifiers to help make that determination. An easier answer might be just taking care of our family, friends and neighbors on a larger scale.”

“Population health is the health status or outcome of a group of people. The distribution of various conditions throughout the group allows for an improved understanding of a particular population’s health.”

“A measure of and policies affecting the overall well-being of the residents of a defined area.”

“We are entering a population tsunami. For example, California will be one of the first ‘minority majority’ states in the country. How we respond to diversity in the population is key … the social inequities are the social determinants of health that impact pre-hospital chronic disease management, post-hospital surgery outcomes and readmissions — all factors that have an operational impact on a hospital.”

“Population health encompasses the programs, services, tactics and initiatives that a population health manager (e.g., a health system or an accountable care organization) utilizes in order to assume the accountability for the outcomes of care and the cost of that care for an entire population or subpopulation of people, only some of whom may currently be patients.”

“Population health is the analysis and design of interventions and management of large groups of citizens focused on improving their health status.”

“Population health involves transitioning care delivery to a model that is value based which includes focusing on better case management of those patients with multiple co-morbidities, partnering in care delivery with other providers, including previous competitors, better managing overall utilization and caring for patients in the most appropriate setting, not necessarily acute care.”

“I’m comfortable with the Institute of Medicine (IOM) definition which describes population health as ‘the health outcomes of a group of individuals, including the distribution of such outcomes within the group (Kindig and Stoddart, 2003).’”

“Population health means taking an analytical approach to understanding the health needs, disparities and outcomes of the community and to align improvement initiatives.”

“Assuming total health and health care responsibility for a group of individuals and empowering them with health information and tools with an emphasis on personalized prevention and self-management programs. From my experience, it is managing care for the right reasons and improved health of the patient versus for economic reasons alone, which was the primary motivation of past attempts in population health.”

“Population health is the collaborative efforts among all health care professionals within a population that measures patient outcomes, builds on best practices and monitors access.”

“Population health is a management approach to redesigning the care for a group of people with the aims of making their care better and more efficient.”

“Population health: Managing the system of activities focused on improving health outcomes for a collection of individuals (a population) by identifying care gaps based on evidence-based guidelines, understanding barriers and developing systems/teams that can help make the right thing the easy thing for individual patients and providers.”

“Any definition of population health is evolving and thought provoking, in the most serious context possible, because every human as a member of the global population deserves the right to the foundational elements necessary to be healthy. Foundational elements are both basic and unique to populations; therefore, it is essential for the elements to be identified and provided in an unrelenting manner that mitigates any negative impact to the health of populations.”

“I prefer to use the term ‘people health,’ meaning each individual should be as healthy as possible.”

“Effectively taking responsibility for the health care of populations of patients to ensure high-quality, efficient health care at the lowest possible cost for the population.”

“Population health is an approach to managing the health of a population — a community, a group of employees, insurance plan enrollees, etc. — in order to improve the health outcomes of each member of that population. Population health is also about providing value — the highest possible outcome at the lowest possible cost.”

“Population health is a concept placing emphasis on addressing multiple health determinants for a group of individuals, such that the overall health of the group improves.”