My Healthy Philly

My Healthy Philly provides information, digital tools and social media applications to empower users in their personal experience with the health ecosystem, the healthcare system and engage with various stakeholders (healthcare professional, hospitals, insurance companies, regulators, government officials, and media) to achieve optimal healthcare for all.

 

Leveraging the vast healthcare assets of the region, we can build a healthcare system in the Delaware Valley that provides all our citizens with quality affordable healthcare and serves as a shining light for the rest of our nation. Americans are once again at a critical juncture in our national journey. Our political system, as well as our healthcare system, has become dysfunctional and our fiscal future is uncertain. This is the time to set a path that leads us to reclaim our representative democracy. Together we can work to improve the “general welfare” and promote the well being of our citizens.

 

We can start by reframing the conversation from “what can I get”, to “what can we, as citizens,  not just as consumers and patients, do to achieve a healthcare system that is affordable, and provides access to quality care for all of us?”  

 

We can engage healthcare stakeholders and demand public reporting of meaningful information about healthcare outcomes. We can all do our part to demand accountability from the stakeholders that receive benefits from our taxes. We can establish a vision for excellent health care and gather yearly to assess the health of our nation, expecting it to be the best in the world.

 

Vital Signs Core Metrics for Health and Health Care Progress

 

1. Life expectancy:  Life expectancy is a validated, readily available, and easily understandable measure for a critical health concept. Because life expectancy depends on a full range of individual and community

influences on health—from cancer to homicide—it represents an inclusive, high-level measure for health.

 

Life expectancy

Infant mortality

Maternal mortality

Violence and injury mortality

 

 

2. Well-being: Well-being captures the subjective dimensions of health-related to quality of life. Furthermore, levels of well-being often predict utilization of and satisfaction with health care. Self-reported well-being is a reliable indicator

 

Well-being

Multiple chronic conditions

Depression

 

 

3. Overweight and obesity: More than two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese, a fact that has causes and consequences that extend beyond the health system—including socioeconomic, cultural, political, and lifestyle factors.

 

Overweight and obesity

Activity levels

Healthy eating patterns

 

 

4. Addictive behavior: Addiction, including nicotine, alcohol, and other drugs, is prevalent in the United States, representing a complex challenge for the health system, communities, and families. Every year, substance abuse and addiction cost the country more than $500 billion

 

Addictive behavior

Tobacco use

Drug dependence/illicit use

Alcohol dependence/ misuse

 

 

5. Unintended pregnancy: Unintended pregnancy, a significant challenge for both individual and community health, is a measure that aggregates a variety of social, behavioral, cultural, and health factors— particularly women’s knowledge about and access to tools for family planning.

 

Unintended pregnancy

Contraceptive use

 

6. Healthy communities: Individual health is a function of a wide range of socio-economic and community factors, from infrastructure to social connections. Community health includes critical elements of health that fall outside the care system, such as housing, employment, and environmental factors.

 

Healthy communities

Childhood poverty rate

Childhood asthma

Air quality index

Drinking water quality index

 

7. Preventive services: Preventive services (for example, screening for hearing loss or counseling for tobacco cessation) present a valuable opportunity for both improving health and reducing costs

 

Preventive services

Influenza immunization

Colorectal cancer screening

Breast cancer screening

 

 

8. Care access: A person’s ability to access care when needed is a critical precondition for a high-quality health system. Factors that could hamper access to care include lack of health insurance, clinician shortages, lack of transportation, cultural and linguistic barriers, and physical limitations.

 

Care access

The usual source of care

Delay of needed care

 

9. Patient safety: Avoiding harm is among the principal responsibilities of the health care system, yet adverse outcomes are common. Ensuring patient safety will require a culture that prioritizes and assesses safety through a reliable index of organizational results.

 

Patient safety

Wrong-site surgery

Pressure ulcers

Medication reconciliation

 

 

10. Evidence-based care: Ensuring that patients receive care supported by scientific evidence for appropriateness and effectiveness is a central challenge for the health care system. Currently, an estimated one-third of U.S. health care expenditures do not contribute to improving health. Aggregating carefully selected and standardized clinical measures can provide a reliable composite index of system performance

 

Evidence-based care

Cardiovascular risk reduction

Hypertension control

Diabetes control composite

Heart attack therapy protocol

Stroke therapy protocol

Unnecessary care composite

 

11. Care match with patient goals: Systematically assessing each patient’s individual goals and perspectives ensures that the health care system is focusing on the aspects of care that matter most to patients.

 

Care match with patient goals

Patient experience

Shared decision making

End-of-life/advanced care planning

 

12. Personal spending burden: Care that is too expensive can limit access to care, lead people to avoid care, or prevent them from spending money in other areas of value to them—with far-reaching economic impacts.

 

Personal spending burden

Healthcare-related bankruptcies

 

13. Population spending burden: Health care spending consumes a large portion of the U.S. gross domestic product, dwarfing the health care spending of other nations. This burden can be measured at national, state, local, and institutional levels.

 

Population spending burden

The total cost of care

Health care spending growth

 

14. Individual engagement: Given the effects of personal choices on health, as well as the increasing use of personal health devices, it is critical for individuals to be aware of their options and responsibilities in caring for their own health and that of their

families and communities.

 

Individual engagement

Involvement in health initiatives

 

15. Community engagement: Across the United States, communities have and utilize different levels of resources to support efforts to maintain and improve individual and family health—for example, addiction treatment programs, emergency medical facilities, and opportunities for social engagement.

 

Community engagement

Availability of healthy food

Walkability Community health benefit agenda