The Nation's Health

Summary:

- Presents a comprehensive overarching framework to portray the determinants of the nation's health and organize the major components of the Book. Then, under each major component, we present a more detailed framework capturing the essential elements of that particular component of the overarching framework. This would be an important new addition to the Book and will make better sense to the readers when approaching the reading materials.

- The book cross-links to Delivering Healthcare in the US and Essentials of the US Health Care System books so that the readings presented in this Book would also become background and supplemental readings of the two other textbooks.

- In front of each major component, a summary section highlights the major issues and challenges related to that component and provides a summary of the representative articles to follow. This helps readers clearly grasp the essential elements related to that component and understand the main objectives of each of the selected readings for that component.

- The Book will include both classic readings and new readings published within the last five years.

- New features: Introduces articles on healthcare delivery and interventions to address health determinants and improve population health from other countries in the world. Readers will benefit from learning from other countries in both healthcare delivery and health determinants interventions.

Other positive features of the Book include:

- Limited use of tables and figures to allow readers to grasp the essence of the chapter without too much distraction

- The book can be used either stand-alone as a textbook or a secondary reader to a health care related course Courses will be found in: Schools of Public Health Department of Health Administration and Policy School of Nursing School of Medicine Allied Health Competitive

Features:

-Timely / current

-Concise and easy-to-follow

-Well-organized

-Focusing on essentials of U.S. health care delivery

-Include lessons and experiences from foreign countries Inexpensive

Qualifying Questions:

a) Do your students have limited knowledge of U.S. health care? - The book includes overviews and collection of articles that provide an introduction to the most essentials components of U.S. health care delivery at layman's terms.

b) Is current information important in your teaching? - The book provides relevantly current articles on important components of U.S. health care delivery. Its relatively short-length facilitates quick updates from year to year.

c) Is coherence important to you and your students? - The book uses a comprehensive framework to organize the parts and chapters. Its limited use of tables and figures does not cause too much a 'slow-down'.

PartI The Health of the Nation
Chapter1 Health Outcomes
CaseReading 1 We Can Do Better--Improving the Health of the American People
CaseReading 2 U.S. Disparities in Health: Descriptions, Causes, and Mechanisms
CaseReading 3 Changing Patterns of Mortality Among American Indians
CaseReading 4 Towards a Common Definition of Global Health
Chapter2 Conceptual Framework of Health Determinants
CaseReading 1 Proximal, Distal, and the Politics of Causation: What's Level Got to Do With It?
CaseReading 2 A Call to Action for Individuals & Their Communities
CaseReading 3 Sorting Out the Connections Between the Built Environment and Health: A Conceptual Framework for Navigating Pathways and Planning Healthy Cities
CaseReading 4 CSDH Framework for Action
PartII The Determinants of Health
Chapter3 Social Determinants of Health
CaseReading 1 Social Epidemiology: Social Determinants of Health in the United States: Are We Losing Ground?
CaseReading 2 Income Inequality and Socioeconomic Gradients in Mortality
CaseReading 3 Social Determinants of Health Inequalities
CaseReading 4 Socioeconomic Inequalities in Health in 22 European Countries
Chapter4 Behavioral Determinants of Health
CaseReading 1 Evaluating the Public Health Impact of Health Promotion Interventions: The RE-AIM Framework
CaseReading 2 A Framework for Assessing the Effectiveness, Efficiency, and Equity of Behavioral Healthcare
CaseReading 3 The Health and Cost Benefits of Work Site Health-Promotion Programs
CaseReading 4 A National Chronic Disease Crisis: The Time to Act Is Now
Chapter5 Biological determinants of health
CaseReading 1 Biological Basis of Determinants of Health
CaseReading 2 The Health of U.S. Racial and Ethnic Populations
CaseReading 3 The Effects of Childhood Stress on Health across the Lifespan
CaseReading 4 Behavioral Determinants of Health Aging Revisited: An Update on the Good News for the Baby Boomer Generation
PartIII Medical Health Determinants: Inputs
Chapter6 The Health Workforce
CaseReading 1 The Physician Workforce: Projections and Research into Current Issues Affecting Supply and Demand
CaseReading 2 Forecasting the Global Shortage of Physicians: An Economic- and Needs-Based Approach
CaseReading 3 The Rationale for Diversity in the Health Professions: A Review of the Evidence
CaseReading 4 Physician Workforce Crisis? Wrong Diagnosis, Wrong Prescription
Chapter7 Health Care Financing
CaseReading 1 The Uninsured: A Primer
CaseReading 2 Trends in the Health Status of Medicare Risk Contract Enrollees
CaseReading 3 The Value of Medical Spending in the United States, 1960-2000
CaseReading 4 High and Rising Health Care Costs: Demystifying U.S. Health Care Spending
Chapter8 Medical Technology
CaseReading 1 How Changes in Medical Technology Affect Health Care Costs
CaseReading 2 The Cost of Medical Technologies: Maximizing the Value of Innovation
CaseReading 3 Pharmaceutical Price Controls in OECD Countries
CaseReading 4 Some Unintended Consequences of Information Technology in Health Care: The Nature of Patient Care Information System-Related Errors
PartIV Medical Health Determinants: The Continuum of Care
Chapter9 Organization of Health Care
CaseReading 1 Coordinating Care--A Perilous Journey Through the Health Care System
CaseReading 2 Community Health Centers Tackle Rising Demands and Expectations
CaseReading 3 Managed Care and Cancer Outcomes for Medicare Beneficiaries with Disabilities
CaseReading 4 How Engaged Are Consumers in Their Health and Health Care, and Why Does It Matter?
Chapter10 The Public Health System
CaseReading 1 Declaration of Alma-Ata: International Conference on Primary Health Care, Alma-Ata, USSR, September 6-12, 1978
CaseReading 2 Political Will: A Bridge Between Public Health Knowledge and Action
CaseReading 3 Improving the Effectiveness of Health Care and Public Health: A Multiscale Complex Systems Analysis
CaseReading 4 Public Health Services and Cost-Effectiveness Analysis
Chapter11 Primary and Ambulatory Care
CaseReading 1 Primary Health Vare: Making Alma-Ata a Reality
CaseReading 2 Primary Care: Putting People First
CaseReading 3 Quantifying the Health Benefits of Primary Care Physician Supply in the United States
CaseReading 4 America's Health Centers
Chapter12 Inpatient and Tertiary Care
CaseReading 1 Physician-Owned Specialty Hospitals Objections
CaseReading 2 General Hospitals, Specialty Hospitals and Financially Vulnerable Patients
CaseReading 3 Experiences of Critical Access Hospitals in the Provision of Emergency Medical Services
CaseReading 4 Partners in Critical Care
Chapter13 Long-Term and Community Care
CaseReading 1 Generations
CaseReading 2 Consumer-Preparedness for Long-Term Care
CaseReading 3 Long-Term Care: Understanding Medicaids' Role for the Elderly and Disabled Executive Summary
CaseReading 4 Changes in the Quality of Nursing Homes in the US: A Review and Data Update
Chapter14 Mental Health Care
CaseReading 1 Trends in Mental Health Care
CaseReading 2 Culture Counts: The Influence of Culture and Society on Mental Health, Mental Illness
CaseReading 3 Managed Behavioral Health Care Carve-Outs: Past Performance and Future Prospects
CaseReading 4 Vision Statement
PartV Interventions to Improve Health
Chapter15 Non-medical Interventions
CaseReading 1 Approaching Health Disparities from a Population Perspective: The National Institutes of Health Centers for Population Health and Health Disparities
CaseReading 2 Closing the Gap in a Generation: Health Equity Through Action on the Social Determinants of Health
CaseReading 3 The Inequality Paradox: The Population Approach and Vulnerable Populations
CaseReading 4 A Message from the Co-Chairs
Chapter16 Medical Interventions
CaseReading 1 10 years, 5 Voices, 1 Challenge
CaseReading 2 Physician Performance Measurement: A Key to Higher Quality and Lower Cost Growth or a Lost Opportunity?
CaseReading 3 Hospital Strategies to Engage Physicians in Quality Improvement
CaseReading 4 Navigating Health Care: Why It's So Hard and What Can Be Done to Make it Easier for the Average Consumer
Chapter17 Lessons from Abroad
CaseReading 1 Slowing the Growth of Health Care Cost--Learning from International Experience
CaseReading 2 Comparative Effectiveness in Health Care Reform: Lessons from Abroad
CaseReading 3 Evaluating the WHO Assessment Instrument for Mental Health Systems by Comparing Mental Health Policies in Four Countries
CaseReading 4 Health System Reform in China 7: China's Health System Performance
PartVI Directions for the Future
Chapter18 The Future of Health Care Delivery
CaseReading 1 The Present and Future Organization of Medicine
CaseReading 2 Options for Controlling the Cost and Increasing the Efficiency of Health Care
CaseReading 3 Rising Rates of Chronic Health Conditions: What Can Be Done?
CaseReading 4 Making Medical Homes Work: Moving from Concept to Practice