UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Tens of millions of Americans are currently suffering from preventable diseases and living shorter lives as a result – while large health disparities continue to grow across social class, race, and gender.
These trends are fueling interest in population health research and were the focus of the conference “Persistent and Emerging Issues in Population Health Science” held at the Nittany Lion Inn on Penn State’s University Park campus September 19-21.
According to conference co-organizer Michelle Frisco, acting director of the Population Research Institute and associate professor of sociology and demography at Penn State, the conference connected scholars from diverse disciplines such as medicine, demography, sociology, psychology, and economics. The conference also brought together researchers with public health practitioners and community groups who can use research to improve health outcomes and the social determinants of health in U.S. communities.
Keynote speaker, Susan Dentzer, CEO and president of the Network of Excellence in Health Innovation and a health policy contributor to PBS NewsHour, discussed how scientific evidence could and should be used to influence programs to improve population health. “There isn’t a natural venue for population health scientists from different perspectives to share research and build new interdisciplinary collaborative projects. Even when collaborations occur, dissemination of findings is often limited to outlets that target specific disciplines or only academic audiences,” she explained.
Other conference speakers included population health experts from Penn State and speakers from all over the country, such as Dan Fagin, author of “Tom’s River: A Story of Science and Salvation”, and Abdul El Sayed, executive director of the Detroit Health Department. The full conference agenda is available online.
The conference was the second in a series of conferences aimed at connecting population health scientist to share knowledge that can be used to help improve the health of the U.S. population and reduce social disparities. “Our goal is to create an interdisciplinary network of scientists, policy makers, and practitioners who will have a venue to meet, share knowledge and develop collaborative research projects,” Frisco said.
The series is being funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and is a collaboration of Penn State’s Population Research Institute in the Social Science Research Institute, the Institute for Policy and Social Research at the University of Kansas, and the Interdisciplinary Association for Population Health Science. The next conference will be held at the University of Texas-Austin on October 2-4, 2017. To be added to the conference mailing list, contact pophealth@pop.psu.edu.