Written by Karen Carlson
To better address all aspects of patients’ health, SIU School of Medicine is thinking differently.
“Think beyond the individual patient office visit,” said Dr. Janet Albers, and SIU Family Medicine Physician. “Health workers must take a population health approach to caring for patients. That means understanding how patients’ lifestyles and home environments can affect their health.” For example, families living in areas with high crime rates may not feel safe to exercise outdoors, leading to obesity, diabetes and other conditions. Tenants living in a dilapidated housing complex may suffer from severe asthma.
A five-year, $2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration will support training to help health workers think differently by addressing these types of population health issues. The program, called “Population Health and Systems Thinking,” will include a variety of SIU School of Medicine learners: physician assistant students, medical students and physicians in the family and community medicine residency program.
The population-health methods will include training in preventive screening measures, critical thinking and team skills that will help learners better care for the communities they serve. “For many years, doctors weren’t aware of what resources were available to help patients with issues such as housing, legal or crime problems,” Dr. Albers said. “Now with a larger, inter-professional team within the medical home, we are more likely to screen for and recognize such issues and then connect patients with appropriate resources.” This training may eventually include community partnerships with local law enforcement, public health and ambulance companies.
This project builds on initiatives undertaken in recent months by SIU Department of Family & Community Medicine, including the “hotspotting” model that addresses high-risk patients and the community health worker program that cares for residents of the Enos Park neighborhood. It targets the 16 county Delta region, which includes Illinois’ southernmost counties. In the Delta region, 15 of 16 counties rank in the lower 50th percentile of Illinois counties for health outcomes.
“This is our dream, and patients will ultimately benefit with a better health care team,” Dr. Albers said.