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The book explores the vital link between population health (what the health system is aiming for) and the commissioning of health services (the process of securing services) and how this can be achieved. It covers the key opportunities for applying a population approach to the nuts and bolts of commissioning, as well as to the more strategic challenges in commissioning practice. It includes fundamental concepts needed in a commissioner’s repertoire of skills and competencies, and also more applied scenarios to navigate in practice. The emphasis is on a solid foundation for practice for those who work in commissioning, those whose work supports commissioning functions, public health professionals working in the quality and commissioning arena, and students studying in this area. It is particularly relevant to current developments in whole-system thinking and a population approach. Core concepts or ‘navigation tools’ are included to help with common challenges in commissioning such as the scoping of a health issue from a population perspective, making sense of different types of evidence, purposeful use of health intelligence, effective preventive opportunities, prioritization, quality issues for commissioners, and other applied topics that have to be navigated in practice. Whilst each topic is a salient component in itself, in combination the collection forms a comprehensive armoury for commissioning for health gain and decision-making for populations. These vantage points are useful whatever the structural system of the day because issues about finite health resources, securing quality health services, and reducing amenable health inequalities will always be pertinent.

This book concerns the importance of achieving health equity throughout the United States. Its publication is timely, given the major challenges in American health care in recent years. These include reductions in health care coverage, the loss of funding to tackle social determinants of health, and the growing risks associated with climate change. The abundant data that document health inequities in housing, education, incarceration, income, opportunity, and so much else in the United States reveal the extent of the health-based challenges the nation faces as a whole. With these issues in mind, this book tackles a variety of topics centered on a “Culture of Health,” and includes contributions from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's (RWJF) Sharing Knowledge to Build a Culture of Health conferences. The first part of this volume concerns the assets intrinsic to cultural identity and the contribution to the nation's well-being that this diversity brings. Next, the book calls attention to the places where people spend much of their time and shows how each setting has the power to generate health, or to undermine it. Finally, this book closes with a section on a broad range of interconnected topics that have drawn considerable attention from many fields and brought new perspectives to the table.

Smallpox was the scourge of the eighteenth century: it showed no mercy, almost wiping out whole societies. Young and old, poor and royalty were equally at risk — unless they had survived a previous attack. Daniel Sutton, a young surgeon from Suffolk, used this knowledge to pioneer a simple and effective inoculation method to counter the disease. His technique paved the way for Edward Jenner's discovery of vaccination — but, while Jenner is revered, Sutton has been vilified for not widely revealing his methods until later in life. This book reclaims Sutton's importance, showing how the clinician's practical and observational discoveries advanced understanding of the nature of disease. The book explores Sutton's personal and professional development, and the wider world of eighteenth-century health in which he practised inoculation. Sutton's brilliant and exacting mind had a significant impact on medicine — the effects of which can still be seen today.

This edited text is the second in the series entitled the Sociology of Health Professions: Future International Directions, published by Policy Press. It consists of eleven chapters covering several different aspects of support work and its relationship to the health professions, illustrated with reference to a wide range of different countries. Its importance is underlined by the relative lack of attention given to date to the diverse span of health support workers, in light of their growing significance in harness with the health professions in providing care to an increasingly ageing population in the modern world. The special significance of this collection, introduced by Mike Saks as editor, is that the various expert international contributions are brought together in the first social science book produced on the part played by support workers in conjunction with health professions in providing health care to users and their carers. This has crucial ramifications for well being in all modern societies. The support workforce and its place in the health care division of labour have too often been invisible in the past. However, this book, written from a neo-Weberian perspective, enhances our academic understanding of the role of support workers and helps to inform policy making in this critical field.

The world is currently in the midst of unprecedented challenges—from the impacts of climate change and the humanitarian crisis of forced migration, to the rise of nationalism and epidemic growth of deaths of despair. These challenges require new approaches catalyzing communities, cities, and countries around the globe to embrace a well-being agenda to assess progress and guide solutions. Thus, this book provides ideas and guidance on advancing well-being locally, nationally, and internationally. It illuminates how diverse communities and cultures can work together to strengthen these efforts. Ultimately, the well-being framework offers an equity focus; a more human centered view of how things are going; holistic approaches; and interconnectedness. The goal here is to advance global dialogue and action on the well-being construct, and to inform the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s (RWJF) work with others to create a Culture of Health in the United States.

This book outlines why health, individually and collectively, is the greatest untapped opportunity for prosperity and happiness in the 21st century and introduces the concept of total health as a tool for valuing health. The most significant flaw in health systems today is a failure to value health but instead to count the costs of ill health, and the authors examine why this should be so from a range of perspectives. The costs of ill health are explored not only as an increasing portion of government spend, but also in relation to wider society, where entrenched inequalities result in the clustering of poor health, low educational attainment, and poor job prospects. The ways in which our health and the drivers of health have evolved are described, and their roles in preventing individuals from living well, learning, and working, are identified. The healthcare system is also examined, and revealed to be an illness service with little resilience, importing illness rather than exporting health, and failing to leverage the digital and technological innovations harnessed by other industries. The authors call for health to be valued, rather than ill health costed, and describe a 21st-century healthcare system that expands the NHS from an illness service to a true, total health service. COVID-19 has shown how vulnerable societies, economies, and daily lives are to ill health. This book demonstrates that, by valuing the pivotal role of health, societies could look to a happier and more prosperous future.