Both/And

What if we can have better health outcomes at a lower cost, now and in the future? Seriously.

Health is driven by four factors: clinical (10%), social (20%), genetics (30%), and behavior (40%).

And yet, over 80% of our current health spending is on clinical services.

The result? A declining life span and the highest cost per capita in the world. None of us working in public health or medicine should be satisfied with that result.

We can do better.

The global pandemic has ushered in a brand new day — and unprecedented opportunities in medicine and public health:

• Forced acknowledgment of the interdependence of public health and medicine

• Higher and more expansive public expectations

• Funding availability, and

• Most importantly, the restlessness of those in the health and healthcare professions to change the traditional system for better results.

The opportunity to change the systems of medicine and public health for the better has never been greater.

The good news? The pot of money being spent on health and health care is abundant.

The bad news? It’s not being spent in the right places.

The questions we must all ask ourselves right now are:

• What outcomes are our health dollars currently driving?

• What outcomes are we satisfied achieving together?

• How can we achieve greater health equity?

Imagine if we systematically joined the care of the individual (medicine) to the care of the community (public health). How could that change health outcomes now and in the future?

Both/And: Medicine & Public Health Together illuminates the path to creating an ongoing partnership between public health and medicine and shows the measurable return on investment already being seen in early adopter communities.

Dr. Katie Kaney, a health thought leader with 25 years of experience spanning public health, healthcare, and business, shows exactly how we can use this unprecedented time in human history to make changes to our current health systems now that will pay dividends for decades.