Population Health
Reformation for the Health of the Population
Population health is an ever progressing branch of medicine that is fundamentally concerned with improving the health of a population as opposed to the sole health of the individual. Advances in technology continue to improve the average life expectancy, yet the
American healthcare system is failing to evolve. Insurance companies routinely collect huge profits, yet a significant portion of the American population remains subject to poor health care.
Reconstructions in academia and at the legislative level are a necessity if there is to be any advancement to our healthcare system and increase within population health.
Medical training has proven to be insufficient in teaching students how to care for patients outside of the primary demographic to which they were exposed during their studies
(Greenlick, p. 2). Future physicians should be trained to better understand the dynamics and diversified needs of the individuals from the populations in which they will be serving. Having a working awareness of multiple patient populations would allow physicians to better serve that individual and collectively improve the population. Socioeconomic disparities, ethnic variances, access to proper nutrition, and genetic predisposition to particular diseases are a few factors that need be considered to provide quality care. Reshaping of medical school curriculum to better prepare students to understand the distribution of disease, the environmental effects on health and disease, and how to interpret the needs of a larger variety of populations should become a priority in medical academia.
Reformation is not isolated to any gender, ethnicity, social class, or age group. Health care reform remains a hot topic amongst the one-percenters, the bottom bracket, and the classes in between. Universal reforms need to be made in order to equalize our health care system.
Quality care should not be about the bottom line for profit but about
Population health is an ever progressing branch of medicine that is fundamentally concerned with improving the health of a population as opposed to the sole health of the individual. Advances in technology continue to improve the average life expectancy, yet the
American healthcare system is failing to evolve. Insurance companies routinely collect huge profits, yet a significant portion of the American population remains subject to poor health care.
Reconstructions in academia and at the legislative level are a necessity if there is to be any advancement to our healthcare system and increase within population health.
Medical training has proven to be insufficient in teaching students how to care for patients outside of the primary demographic to which they were exposed during their studies
(Greenlick, p. 2). Future physicians should be trained to better understand the dynamics and diversified needs of the individuals from the populations in which they will be serving. Having a working awareness of multiple patient populations would allow physicians to better serve that individual and collectively improve the population. Socioeconomic disparities, ethnic variances, access to proper nutrition, and genetic predisposition to particular diseases are a few factors that need be considered to provide quality care. Reshaping of medical school curriculum to better prepare students to understand the distribution of disease, the environmental effects on health and disease, and how to interpret the needs of a larger variety of populations should become a priority in medical academia.
Reformation is not isolated to any gender, ethnicity, social class, or age group. Health care reform remains a hot topic amongst the one-percenters, the bottom bracket, and the classes in between. Universal reforms need to be made in order to equalize our health care system.
Quality care should not be about the bottom line for profit but about