[{"innerBlocks":[],"name":"core\/freeform","postId":125927,"blockType":{"name":"core\/freeform","keywords":[],"attributes":{"content":{"type":"string","source":"raw"},"lock":{"type":"object"}},"providesContext":[],"usesContext":[],"selectors":[],"supports":{"className":false,"customClassName":false,"reusable":false},"styles":[],"variations":[],"apiVersion":3,"title":"Classic","description":"Use the classic WordPress editor.","category":"text"},"originalContent":"Americans are used to seeing California as a bellwether. Whether or not that\u2019s a good or bad thing often depends on individual perspective.

But there\u2019s less room for differences of opinion when it comes to housing and homelessness. With a booming economy that is now the fifth largest in the world, California has also experienced a dramatic rise in homelessness in recent years. In Los Angeles County alone, homelessness has risen in three of the last four years, with a 12 percent increase in the last year.

The reasons for California\u2019s uptick in homelessness are treated as obvious. Average rent in the LA area is now north of $2,000 a month, pushing many residents on the financial edge over the brink.

If nationwide data are any indicator, that\u2019s a lot of vulnerable people. According to a widely referenced Bankrate survey, only 40 percent of Americans would be able to pay an unexpected $1,000 expense with dollars in savings.

While Forbes would have us believe it doesn\u2019t matter because Americans have broad access to credit in an emergency, there\u2019s a truth beyond shilling for big banks that the magazine willfully ignores.

Living on the cusp of insolvency is a balancing act. Millions have little in savings because they exist paycheck to paycheck. Borrowed money and high interest rates just push the vulnerable past the breaking point and out onto the streets.

Maybe that cocktail of problems is why the ranks of the homeless in LA are swelling. Perhaps, in an unlucky month, the fridge stopped working and the car broke down at about the same time someone was diagnosed with diabetes and the rent went up. Or maybe there was some of that and some mental illness or addiction thrown in just to further gum up the works. Misfortune is pricey in America.

And this is where Fortune, or at least one columnist for the publication, really fails to grasp the problem. People are not just borrowers or renters or consumers or employees or patients. They are all these things and more. When a serious problem occurs with any one of these personas and there is no cushion\u2014time, money, support\u2014to deal with it, everything suffers, including, sometimes especially, health.

Which is why there even exists the discipline of public or population health. Any tear in the fabric is potentially harmful. Public health seeks to prevent these lacerations.

\u201cWhile a doctor treats people who are sick, those of us working in public health try to prevent people from getting sick or injured in the first place,\u201d reads the About page on the American Public Health Association (APHA) website. \u201cWe also promote wellness by encouraging healthy behaviors.\u201d

Among the practitioners of public health, APHA includes the obvious\u2014social workers, public health doctors and nurses, health educators\u2014and the less conspicuous\u2014restaurant inspectors, as well as scientists and researchers.

Is this list complete? In addition to those professions that endeavor to improve public health, should it also include those with the power to dismantle it?

Maybe that\u2019s a step too far. Still, healthcare is evolving from a system of treating illness and disease to one that understands the significant importance\u2014economic and otherwise\u2014of preventing it.

\u201cKnowing what circumstances a patient might experience, ranging from a person\u2019s access to transportation to their food security or level of education, helps clinicians find easy-to-solve problems outside of the care environment that can have a huge and costly impact on a patient\u2019s well-being,\u201d observes a recent article in a trade publication as it covered recent joint efforts by Waystar and KPMG to integrate social determinants of health into projections for high-risk populations.

\u201cWhen we look at economic stability, how patients access healthcare resources, the access they have to primary\/follow-up care \u2026 all of those areas for us are areas of risk, and, until recently, we didn\u2019t have much insight into them,\u201d said KPMG principal Larry Burnett.

Maybe we didn\u2019t have strong data, but anecdotally we\u2019ve known these things forever\u2014at least since Bono explained in 1988 that \u201cthe rich stay healthy, the sick stay poor.\u201d

So are we only now understanding in detail what contributes to good and bad health because we finally have tools to identify the challenge? Do we grasp that almost everything in a person\u2019s life is a health component because we can control all those puzzle pieces? Not by a long shot. But we are headed in the right direction.

Recall that decades ago there was almost no recognition of the impact of unreliable transportation on evaluation and treatment, little understanding of food deserts and scant appreciation for the deleterious effects of loneliness.

Now, we know that almost everything in life contributes to overall health, and the ubiquity of IT systems means we can start to track that data in meaningful ways.

Should healthcare be responsible for so many aspects of a person\u2019s life? Not directly, no. We\u2019re not talking about taking responsibility. Instead, many patients don\u2019t even know how their behavior may be negatively impacting life. Data can tell them what they might want to improve, even if they never do.

The bottom line on the public health approach to personal health is just that\u2014the bottom line. As we\u2019re seeing now, measles outbreaks, opioid addiction epidemics, diseases of desperation\u2014all these and more afflictions have tremendous costs in both blood and treasure for American society.

Ultimately, we\u2019ll decide that population health, as well as personalized and preventive medicine\u2014disciplines that depend on and benefit from data\u2014are both the correctly humane approach and the steps necessary to keep healthcare from overwhelming the economy.","saveContent":"Americans are used to seeing California as a bellwether. Whether or not that\u2019s a good or bad thing often depends on individual perspective.

But there\u2019s less room for differences of opinion when it comes to housing and homelessness. With a booming economy that is now the fifth largest in the world, California has also experienced a dramatic rise in homelessness in recent years. In Los Angeles County alone, homelessness has risen in three of the last four years, with a 12 percent increase in the last year.

The reasons for California\u2019s uptick in homelessness are treated as obvious. Average rent in the LA area is now north of $2,000 a month, pushing many residents on the financial edge over the brink.

If nationwide data are any indicator, that\u2019s a lot of vulnerable people. According to a widely referenced Bankrate survey, only 40 percent of Americans would be able to pay an unexpected $1,000 expense with dollars in savings.

While Forbes would have us believe it doesn\u2019t matter because Americans have broad access to credit in an emergency, there\u2019s a truth beyond shilling for big banks that the magazine willfully ignores.

Living on the cusp of insolvency is a balancing act. Millions have little in savings because they exist paycheck to paycheck. Borrowed money and high interest rates just push the vulnerable past the breaking point and out onto the streets.

Maybe that cocktail of problems is why the ranks of the homeless in LA are swelling. Perhaps, in an unlucky month, the fridge stopped working and the car broke down at about the same time someone was diagnosed with diabetes and the rent went up. Or maybe there was some of that and some mental illness or addiction thrown in just to further gum up the works. Misfortune is pricey in America.

And this is where Fortune, or at least one columnist for the publication, really fails to grasp the problem. People are not just borrowers or renters or consumers or employees or patients. They are all these things and more. When a serious problem occurs with any one of these personas and there is no cushion\u2014time, money, support\u2014to deal with it, everything suffers, including, sometimes especially, health.

Which is why there even exists the discipline of public or population health. Any tear in the fabric is potentially harmful. Public health seeks to prevent these lacerations.

\u201cWhile a doctor treats people who are sick, those of us working in public health try to prevent people from getting sick or injured in the first place,\u201d reads the About page on the American Public Health Association (APHA) website. \u201cWe also promote wellness by encouraging healthy behaviors.\u201d

Among the practitioners of public health, APHA includes the obvious\u2014social workers, public health doctors and nurses, health educators\u2014and the less conspicuous\u2014restaurant inspectors, as well as scientists and researchers.

Is this list complete? In addition to those professions that endeavor to improve public health, should it also include those with the power to dismantle it?

Maybe that\u2019s a step too far. Still, healthcare is evolving from a system of treating illness and disease to one that understands the significant importance\u2014economic and otherwise\u2014of preventing it.

\u201cKnowing what circumstances a patient might experience, ranging from a person\u2019s access to transportation to their food security or level of education, helps clinicians find easy-to-solve problems outside of the care environment that can have a huge and costly impact on a patient\u2019s well-being,\u201d observes a recent article in a trade publication as it covered recent joint efforts by Waystar and KPMG to integrate social determinants of health into projections for high-risk populations.

\u201cWhen we look at economic stability, how patients access healthcare resources, the access they have to primary\/follow-up care \u2026 all of those areas for us are areas of risk, and, until recently, we didn\u2019t have much insight into them,\u201d said KPMG principal Larry Burnett.

Maybe we didn\u2019t have strong data, but anecdotally we\u2019ve known these things forever\u2014at least since Bono explained in 1988 that \u201cthe rich stay healthy, the sick stay poor.\u201d

So are we only now understanding in detail what contributes to good and bad health because we finally have tools to identify the challenge? Do we grasp that almost everything in a person\u2019s life is a health component because we can control all those puzzle pieces? Not by a long shot. But we are headed in the right direction.

Recall that decades ago there was almost no recognition of the impact of unreliable transportation on evaluation and treatment, little understanding of food deserts and scant appreciation for the deleterious effects of loneliness.

Now, we know that almost everything in life contributes to overall health, and the ubiquity of IT systems means we can start to track that data in meaningful ways.

Should healthcare be responsible for so many aspects of a person\u2019s life? Not directly, no. We\u2019re not talking about taking responsibility. Instead, many patients don\u2019t even know how their behavior may be negatively impacting life. Data can tell them what they might want to improve, even if they never do.

The bottom line on the public health approach to personal health is just that\u2014the bottom line. As we\u2019re seeing now, measles outbreaks, opioid addiction epidemics, diseases of desperation\u2014all these and more afflictions have tremendous costs in both blood and treasure for American society.

Ultimately, we\u2019ll decide that population health, as well as personalized and preventive medicine\u2014disciplines that depend on and benefit from data\u2014are both the correctly humane approach and the steps necessary to keep healthcare from overwhelming the economy.","order":0,"get_parent":{},"attributes":[],"attributesType":{"content":{"type":"string","source":"raw"},"lock":{"type":"object"}},"dynamicContent":""}]

How data is crucial to essential improvements in public health

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