An overview of the Population Health Initiative
Vision: The Population Health Initiative creates a world where all people can live healthier and more fulfilling lives.
Mission: The Population Health Initiative addresses the most persistent and emerging challenges in human health, environmental resilience and social and economic equity. Through partnerships with local, national and global communities, we develop, implement and disseminate transformative knowledge through our research, service and teaching.
On May 3, 2016, President Ana Mari Cauce launched the groundbreaking Population Health Initiative by inviting the University community and partners to come together in a more interdisciplinary and collaborative manner to improve the health of people here and around the world.
She noted that the health of an individual or a community involves more than just the absence of disease. Issues from poverty and equity, to health care access, to climate change and governance all combine to affect the health and well-being of populations around the world. To truly and productively address today’s population health challenges requires collaboration with diverse fields and practices in groundbreaking ways.
The UW’s vision for improving population health is broad, involving contributions from all of the university’s schools and colleges in partnership with external collaborators. The role of the Population Health Initiative is to incubate and advance the key programs, projects and partnerships needed to accelerate the speed at which impact and progress can be realized.
The Population Health Initiative’s focus is currently on five strategic and thematic areas:
To learn more, please explore this website or read our Report to the Community, which summarizes the initiative’s first two years of work.