Texas Health Atlas

Texas Health Atlas
Author: Lawrence E. Estaville
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
Total Pages: 243
Release: 2012-03-19
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 1603447482

With almost two hundred pages of original demographic and health-related maps that display county-by-county and regional information covering everything from the distribution of pharmacies, trauma centers, and emergency rooms to the number of lung, colon, and breast cancer patients in major metropolitan areas (by ZIP code), the Texas Health Atlas provides an indispensable tool for healthcare providers and planners, risk managers, public officials and policymakers, public health workers, and university researchers and students. The authors have mined an immense array of previously scattered information and created a singular resource that provides a geographical perspective on the state’s health care system, medical services, insidious diseases, harmful behaviors, and health disparities among various segments of its population. At a time when nearly a quarter of the 25 million people who live in Texas do not have health insurance—giving Texas the highest uninsured rate of any state—and as policymakers and legislators struggle with rising costs, an aging citizenry, and the prospect of more uncertainties for the healthcare system in the years ahead, the need for quick access to accurate information is greater than ever. Texas Health Atlas provides valuable insights that can guide the decisions needed for the state’s economic wellbeing and the improved health of its citizens.

Access to Health Care in America

Access to Health Care in America
Author: Institute of Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 240
Release: 1993-02-01
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0309047420

Americans are accustomed to anecdotal evidence of the health care crisis. Yet, personal or local stories do not provide a comprehensive nationwide picture of our access to health care. Now, this book offers the long-awaited health equivalent of national economic indicators. This useful volume defines a set of national objectives and identifies indicatorsâ€"measures of utilization and outcomeâ€"that can "sense" when and where problems occur in accessing specific health care services. Using the indicators, the committee presents significant conclusions about the situation today, examining the relationships between access to care and factors such as income, race, ethnic origin, and location. The committee offers recommendations to federal, state, and local agencies for improving data collection and monitoring. This highly readable and well-organized volume will be essential for policymakers, public health officials, insurance companies, hospitals, physicians and nurses, and interested individuals.

Communities in Action

Communities in Action
Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 583
Release: 2017-04-27
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0309452961

In the United States, some populations suffer from far greater disparities in health than others. Those disparities are caused not only by fundamental differences in health status across segments of the population, but also because of inequities in factors that impact health status, so-called determinants of health. Only part of an individual's health status depends on his or her behavior and choice; community-wide problems like poverty, unemployment, poor education, inadequate housing, poor public transportation, interpersonal violence, and decaying neighborhoods also contribute to health inequities, as well as the historic and ongoing interplay of structures, policies, and norms that shape lives. When these factors are not optimal in a community, it does not mean they are intractable: such inequities can be mitigated by social policies that can shape health in powerful ways. Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity seeks to delineate the causes of and the solutions to health inequities in the United States. This report focuses on what communities can do to promote health equity, what actions are needed by the many and varied stakeholders that are part of communities or support them, as well as the root causes and structural barriers that need to be overcome.

National Health Education Standards

National Health Education Standards
Author: Joint Committee on National Health Education Standards
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2007
Genre: Health education
ISBN: 9780944235737

Concluding a two-year review and revision process supported by the American Cancer Society and conducted by an expert panel of health education professionals, this second edition of the National Health Education Standards is the foremost reference in establishing, promoting, and supporting health-enhancing behaviors for students in all grade levels. These guidelines and standards provide a framework for teachers, administrators, and policy makers in designing or selecting curricula, allocating instructional resources, and assessing student achievement and progress; provide students, families, and communities with concrete expectations for health education; and advocate for quality health education in schools, including primary cancer prevention for children and youth.

The Price We Pay

The Price We Pay
Author: Marty Makary
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2019-09-10
Genre: Health & Fitness
ISBN: 1635574129

New York Times bestseller Business Book of the Year--Association of Business Journalists From the New York Times bestselling author comes an eye-opening, urgent look at America's broken health care system--and the people who are saving it--now with a new Afterword by the author. "A must-read for every American." --Steve Forbes, editor-in-chief, FORBES One in five Americans now has medical debt in collections and rising health care costs today threaten every small business in America. Dr. Makary, one of the nation's leading health care experts, travels across America and details why health care has become a bubble. Drawing from on-the-ground stories, his research, and his own experience, The Price We Pay paints a vivid picture of the business of medicine and its elusive money games in need of a serious shake-up. Dr. Makary shows how so much of health care spending goes to things that have nothing to do with health and what you can do about it. Dr. Makary challenges the medical establishment to remember medicine's noble heritage of caring for people when they are vulnerable. The Price We Pay offers a road map for everyday Americans and business leaders to get a better deal on their health care, and profiles the disruptors who are innovating medical care. The movement to restore medicine to its mission, Makary argues, is alive and well--a mission that can rebuild the public trust and save our country from the crushing cost of health care.

The Future of Public Health

The Future of Public Health
Author: Committee for the Study of the Future of Public Health
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 240
Release: 1988-01-15
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0309581907

"The Nation has lost sight of its public health goals and has allowed the system of public health to fall into 'disarray'," from The Future of Public Health. This startling book contains proposals for ensuring that public health service programs are efficient and effective enough to deal not only with the topics of today, but also with those of tomorrow. In addition, the authors make recommendations for core functions in public health assessment, policy development, and service assurances, and identify the level of government--federal, state, and local--at which these functions would best be handled.

The Future of the Public's Health in the 21st Century

The Future of the Public's Health in the 21st Century
Author: Institute of Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 536
Release: 2003-02-01
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0309133181

The anthrax incidents following the 9/11 terrorist attacks put the spotlight on the nation's public health agencies, placing it under an unprecedented scrutiny that added new dimensions to the complex issues considered in this report. The Future of the Public's Health in the 21st Century reaffirms the vision of Healthy People 2010, and outlines a systems approach to assuring the nation's health in practice, research, and policy. This approach focuses on joining the unique resources and perspectives of diverse sectors and entities and challenges these groups to work in a concerted, strategic way to promote and protect the public's health. Focusing on diverse partnerships as the framework for public health, the book discusses: The need for a shift from an individual to a population-based approach in practice, research, policy, and community engagement. The status of the governmental public health infrastructure and what needs to be improved, including its interface with the health care delivery system. The roles nongovernment actors, such as academia, business, local communities and the media can play in creating a healthy nation. Providing an accessible analysis, this book will be important to public health policy-makers and practitioners, business and community leaders, health advocates, educators and journalists.

The South Texas Health Status Review

The South Texas Health Status Review
Author: Amelie G. Ramirez
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 146
Release: 2013-06-29
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 3319002333

This book is a roadmap of the exact health disparities that burden the health of South Texas residents, especially Hispanics, compared to the rest of Texas and nation. This type of knowledge has the potential to fuel and motivate researchers and public health leaders to create and shape interventions to reverse those health disparities. Most notably, focus on obesity and diabetes prevention efforts and modifiable risk factors—such as nutrition, reproductive factors and access to health care—has significant potential to reduce the burden of disease in South Texas communities.South Texas, a 38-county region that spans 45,000 square miles along the Texas-Mexico border northward to the area around metropolitan Bexar County (home to San Antonio), is home to 18% of the state’s population. Yet South Texas residents, who are 68% Hispanic, struggle with lower educational levels, less income and less access to health care—and, as a result, suffer from a wide variety of health disparities. To study the health status and identify the exact health disparities that exist in the region, researchers from The UT Health Science Center at San Antonio teamed with researchers from the Texas Department of State Health Services to develop the South Texas Health Status Review.The Review team analyzed a variety of the latest county, state and national data to compare South Texas’ incidence, prevalence and mortality rates for more than 35 health indicators—from cancers to chronic diseases like diabetes to communicable diseases like HIV/AIDS to maternal health and even environmental health—to the rest of Texas and the nation by age, sex, race/ethnicity and rural/urban location.​