Population health is a community-level approach to patient care, epidemiology and statistics, as well as program development, testing, and evaluation. The American College of Preventive Medicine (ACPM) believes that a robust healthcare system should include all of these components as a part of core community public health programming. Our members translate population health concepts to clinical and public health settings and at all levels of health care administration in order to advance health equity, prevent illness and injury, and build healthy comminutes.

Become an ACPM Population Health Advocate
 

Population Health Overview

Population health is practiced at many different levels. For example, practitioners may focus on:
 
  • Jurisdictional and geographic populations – the traditional setting for governmental public health departments.
  • Organizational populations at worksites or corporate campuses.
  • Membership-based populations, such as an insured population of a healthcare system or the members of an association.
ACPM promotes various population health initiatives at many different functional levels, including clinical care, public health, occupational settings, and more. There is an incredibly close relationship between the core tenets of public health and population health practice.
 

The Value of Preventive Medicine

While the United States spends over $10,000 per capita on health care services (more than any other nation by a large margin) the financial and wellness returns on investment are low, and our system operates inefficiently. We invest far too little in preventing disease, pay insufficient attention to social determinants of health, and have misaligned priorities between payers and providers.

In order to address these inefficiencies, healthcare systems are looking to invest in population-based services for preventive medicine and are searching for health care professionals with the skills needed to transform the system.

ACPM is empowering preventive medicine physicians through continuing education and leadership opportunities to become population health strategists in care settings across the country. These physicians can help meet the growing demand for well-rounded leaders with expertise in population health initiatives and disease prevention to transform our healthcare system.

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Continuing Education

ACPM is working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to develop a comprehensive Population Health Integration Curriculum for preventive medicine physicians and health care professionals. The program will equip medical professionals and health systems with the skills necessary to develop care strategies tailored to the specific needs of their patient populations, and to foster a culture of prevention.

ACPM has launched two 1-1.5 hour Continuing Medical Education (CME)/Maintenance of Certification (MOC) courses for the curriculum that are available through ACPM's learning platform. The preliminary courses will provide:
 
  • A population health overview in an era of transforming healthcare systems.
  • Community population health strategies to address social determinants of health and prevent non-communicable diseases.
Health care is constantly evolving and so will our curriculum. New components and coursework will continuously be added to keep this course up-to-date with the latest developments in population health.

 

Join ACPM

ACPM is expanding our work in the field of population health as a core component of the practice of prevention. We are seeking expert faculty and members to lead the advancement of the field and educate the health care system on science-based and evidence driven population health practices.
Not yet a member? Join ACPM and get involved! We advocate for a wide variety of preventive health initiatives in addition to population health, including:  
Our initiatives are supported through generous donations from our membership and partners. To discover how you can make an impact through population health or if you have questions, contact our team at info@acpm.org or call (202) 466-2044.