Building Healthy Communities

In this culminating video, Community Research for Health Equity research teams reflect on the value of community-led research and its impact on themselves and their communities.

Grantees from the Research in Transforming Health and Healthcare Systems (RTHS) program wanted to know what happens when Medicaid postpartum coverage increases from 60 days to 12 months. The first story in AcademyHealth’s Evidence Effect series breaks down what they found.

Adverse maternal and infant health outcomes, such as deaths related to pregnancy, preterm births, and low birthweight births, continue to disproportionately impact Black, American Indian or Alaska Native (AIAN), and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander (NHPI) birthing people, leaving many in search of additional support. Colleagues from AcademyHealth’s Project DREAM break down what doula care is, how it can offer additional support, and how birthing people can access doula care in their communities.

Every health care system will face a crisis it didn’t see coming. The question is whether leaders will have built the infrastructure, trust, and capacity to respond before the moment arrives. On March 12, 2020, as Norway entered lockdown and international supply chains collapsed, officials faced that test in real time.

Health care innovation and improvement represent opportunities to reshape the health care and public policy ecosystem in a way that centers historically marginalized groups for the benefit of all. An international dialogue among UK and US perspectives elevated key considerations for the health policy community and described a “burning ambition” to effect public policy change.

The maternal health crisis in the U.S. continues to impact birthing people throughout the country, particularly those who are Black, Indigenous, and/or people of color. Colleagues from AcademyHealth’s Project DREAM outline how medical providers can collaborate with doulas in their communities to improve birth outcomes.

AcademyHealth will administer a communications and policy capacity building program for Humana Foundation research grantee partners to equip and empower researchers to leverage their research insights for real public health or health care policy and practice change.

As the year-long Thriving in School project draws to a close, this blog post reflects on the project’s accomplishments to inform research, policy, and practice.

A closer look at the Youth/Family Engagement Domain illuminates ways for youth and families to get involved with the Thriving in School research agenda.