Leadership Blog

Guest Post: Asking the Right Questions About Prevention (0 Comment)
by Robert J. Gould and Corinne G. Husten, Partnership for Prevention
July 1, 2009

When the answer is that living longer is a problem, you know you’re asking the wrong question. The Congressional Budget Office recently issued a memo identifying areas where Congress could save money in a health reform bill. When it came to disease prevention and health promotion, the logic in its response was troubling. Read More

RWJF Priorities Intersect with the Commission's Recommendations (0 Comment)
by Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, President and CEO, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
June 30, 2009

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Commission to Build a Healthier America just completed a yearlong study and issued 10 recommendations for improving the health of all Americans. I was struck by how many of its suggestions matched our strategies for preventing childhood obesity. Read More

Eight Signs that Wellness and Prevention have become Health Reform Priorities (1 Comment)
by David R. Williams, Ph.D., Staff Director
June 22, 2009

The Commission has been studying prevention, wellness, and the broader factors that influence good health for nearly two years. And as the health care reform debate has heated up over the last few weeks, we’ve seen eight signs that health reformers and leaders from all sectors are starting to get the message that there’s more to health than health care. Read More

Start Thinking Outside the Doctor's Office (0 Comment)
by Angela Glover Blackwell, Commissioner
June 19, 2009

As a contributor to The Washington Post’s Health Care Rx blog, I was asked to respond to President Obama’s health reform speech to the American Medical Association this week. In my response, “Start Thinking Outside the Doctor’s Office,” I challenge us all to think big about health reform and to consider the connection between our health and the places we live. Read More

Altarum Institute: Health Is Not Just About Health Care (0 Comment)
by David R. Williams, Ph.D., Staff Director
June 17, 2009

Following an excellent lunch discussion at the Altarum Institute about the social factors that affect health, I put together a guest post for their Online Health Policy Forum. I encourage you to take a look at my post and join the discussion that is underway. Read More

U.S. Surgeon General Report: Healthy Houses Can Lead to Healthier Lives (0 Comment)
by David R. Williams, Ph.D., Staff Director
June 11, 2009

Ron Sims understands the significance a home can have in a person’s life. When it was time to move to Washington, D.C. to join the new Administration – he is Obama’s pick for Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Development (HUD) – his wife and kids decided not to leave Seattle. Their home, he says, was simply too important. Read More

Prevention Matters: Stopping Sickness Before it Starts (1 Comment)
by David R. Williams, Ph.D., Staff Director
June 4, 2009

When Prevention Matters, the blog for Partnership for Prevention, asked that I write a guest post about the Commission’s recommendations, I gladly accepted the opportunity. Read More

Health Reform – We Need to Widen the Lens (0 Comment)
by Paula Braveman, University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine
May 20, 2009

We need health reform in the United States, and we need it quickly. There is wide consensus about the need for change, but are we likely to achieve a healthier America solely through the approaches to health reform now on the table? Read More

Losing Your Job May be Hazardous to Your Health (0 Comment)
by David R. Williams, Ph.D., Staff Director
May 13, 2009

On Friday, the Labor Department announced that the U.S. unemployment rate hit 8.9 percent in April – the highest level since September 1983. For Americans struggling to make their mortgage payments or searching for work, the financial impact is clear. What may be overlooked, however, is the effect of losing a job on a person’s health. Read More

VIDEO: Watch the Education Calculator in Action (0 Comment)
by David R. Williams, Ph.D., Staff Director
May 6, 2009

In conjunction with today’s release of the Commission’s new chartbook, the Commission developed the Education and Health calculator to show the impact of education has on the well-being of communities across the country. In every state and in most counties, users can see how residents' health would be different if education levels there were higher - or lower. Read More

A Healthy Populace Requires More Than Medical Care (1 Comment)
by Sen. Bill Frist, Commissioner
April 27, 2009

In the halls of Congress, most attention regarding our nation’s health focuses on reforming our health care system. But health and health care are not the same, and health reform alone won’t improve the health of all — or even most — Americans. Read More

What Will it Take to Make Americans Healthier? (3 Comments)
by David R. Williams, Ph.D., Staff Director
April 23, 2009

What will it take to make Americans healthier? If you think the answer is health reform, think again. Read More

Guest Post: Looking Ahead (0 Comment)
by Georges C. Benjamin, MD, FACP, FACEP (E), Executive Director, American Public Health Association
April 21, 2009

Even though NPHW 2009 has come and gone, our work is far from over. In the months ahead, APHA will work to build on the momentum of all the individuals and communities who have committed to making America the healthiest nation in one generation. Read More

VIDEO: APHA Launches Healthiest Nation in One Generation for National Public Health Week (1 Comment)
by David R. Williams, Ph.D., Staff Director
April 9, 2009

The American Public Health Association kicks off its National Public Health Week this week with the launch of an excellent new video campaign called "Healthiest Nation in One Generation." Watch the video here. Read More

Guest Post: Health. It's not just one thing. It's a lot of things. (0 Comment)
by Jim Marks, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
April 9, 2009

As a person who trained and practiced as a pediatrician, several careers ago, I am never going to dump on the importance of getting good health care. But at the same time, the course of my life has taught me that there are so many other things that determine how healthy a person is--and that overall, we Americans are not doing so well. Read More

Building a Healthier America (1 Comment)
by Mark McClellan and Alice M. Rivlin, Commission Co-Chairs
April 6, 2009

America's health is failing. Despite unprecedented biomedical achievements, Americans are sicker than they should be and are dying far too young. Shockingly, our children may be the first generation in America to be less healthy and even lead shorter lives than their parents. Read More

VIDEO: Commissioners Discuss Final Recommendations (1 Comment)
by Carole Simpson, Commissioner
April 2, 2009

Today the Commission releases its recommendations and new report, Beyond Health Care: New Directions to a Healthier America. I recently sat down with RWJF President and CEO Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, my fellow Commissioner Dennis Rivera, and Staff Director David. R. Williams to discuss the recommendations and what the Commission saw over the last year. Read More

April 2 Commission Release Event on Twitter (0 Comment)
by David R. Williams, Ph.D., Staff Director
April 2, 2009

The April 2 release of the Commission's final recommendations won't just be accessible to those in Washington, D.C. Commission staff will be covering the event live all morning tomorrow on Twitter at the the "channel" #CBHA. See the conversation here. Read More