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Country Information


  • (Statistical) Number of Inhabitants per Doctor: 341
  • CIA - World Factbook : USA

Organisations and Networks

  • Health Information and Publications Network (HIPNET) - Health Information and Publications Network (HIPNET) [formerly Population and Health Materials Working Group (PHMWG)], from Johns Hopkins' Center for Communications Programs, is a mission-driven partnership that addresses a key public health need for access to technical health information and innovative information technologies that strengthen the performance and sustainability of health care programs, organizations, and services around the world. HIPNet facilitates collaboration among organizations that produce and disseminate print and electronic information in the field of international health. Through quarterly meetings, bi-annual conferences, an online resource center, an email forum and other activities, HIPNet ensures that member investments in health information materials and technologies are efficient, effective, and widely used. HIPNET is funded by the United States Agency for International Development.

UN and Multinational


Government


Non-Government

  • American Academy of Health Behavior (AAHB)
    The AAHB aims "to improve the stature of health educators by supporting and promoting quality health behavior, health education, and health promotion research conducted by health educators. Therefore, the American Academy of Health Behavior is a research organization that represents health education researchers for the expressed purpose of supporting and improving our standing within the academic community and the community at large. We wish to be known as creators of knowledge and not merely as disseminators of other disciplines' research and theories"
  • American Association for World Health (AAWH)
    "AAWH is the only private national organization in the U.S. dedicated to funneling a broad spectrum of critical national and international health information to Americans at the grassroots level by developing and distributing practical, easy-to-use health education and promotional materials to those community leaders who can most effectively reach our U.S. citizens at the local level"
  • American Association of Public Health Dentistry (AAPHD)
  • American Council on Science and Health - "a consumer education consortium concerned with issues related to food, nutrition, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, lifestyle, the environment and health. ACSH is an independent, nonprofit, tax-exempt organization"
  • American Public Health Association (APHA)
  • American School Health Association (ASHA)
  • Association of Schools of Public Health (ASPH)
  • Campaign for Children's Health Care
    The Campaign for Children's Health Care is dedicated to making high-quality, affordable health insurance coverage for all of America's children a top national priority. It is a diverse group of organizations who represent health care providers, educators, parents, advocates, and others, all of whom share a commitment to our nation's children. The Campaign coordinates public education efforts across the country to demonstrate the importance of health insurance for children and families and to show why national action is needed to expand coverage for children.
  • Change Project: Healthy Cities / Healthy Communities
    A comprehensive collection of resource material on planning and implementing healthy cities programs; it includes interviews with major players in this particular field of health promotion (Len Duhl, Ilona Kickbusch, and others)
  • CityNet: Healthy Cities (USA)
    A World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Center in Healthy Cities, located at Indiana University School of Nursing
  • Commonwealth Fund - "The Fund's current four national program areas are improving health care services, bettering the health of minority Americans, advancing the well-being of elderly people, and developing the capacities of children and young people. In all its national programs, the Fund emphasizes prevention and promoting healthy behavior. The fund's international program in health policy seeks to build a network of policy-oriented health care researchers whose multinational experience and outlook stimulate innovative policies and practices in the United States and other industrialized countries"
  • Gay and Lesbian Medical Association
  • Global Health Council
    "A US-based, non-profit membership organization that was created 27 years ago to identify priority health problems and to report on them to the US public, Congress, international and domestic government agencies, academic institutions, and the global health community. The Global Health Council/NCIH network includes hundreds of private and public organizations as well as several thousand professionals based in and outside of the US"
  • Health Research Group - "Since 1971, Public Citizen, a non-profit, consumer research and advocacy organization, founded by Ralph Nader and Dr. Sidney Wolfe, has been fighting for citizen and consumer justice and for government and corporate accountability. The Health Research Group (HRG) is the health arm of Public Citizen and promotes research-based, system-wide changes in health care policy as well as providing advice and oversight concerning drugs, medical devices, doctors and hospitals and occupational health"
  • Healthy Valley 2000 (USA)
    "Healthy Valley 2000 was officially launched in October 1994 after more than a year of work and preparation. The project includes the towns of Ansonia, Derby, Shelton, Seymour, Beacon Falls and Oxford located in South Central Connecticut, with a combined population of 96,000 and an area of 100 square miles"
  • International Healthy Cities Foundation
    The International Healthy Cities Foundation was created to assist people and groups from many different sectors. The mission of the IHCF is to facilitate linkages among people, issues and resources in order to support the development of Healthy Cities initiatives.
  • HealthWeb: Public Health
  • Intercultural Cancer Council - "promotes policies, programs, partnerships, and research to eliminate the unequal burden of cancer among racial and ethnic minorities and medically underserved populations in the United States and its associated territories"
  • The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation
  • MSH - Management Sciences for Health
    Operating since 1971, "Management Sciences for Health (MSH) is a private, nonprofit educational and scientific organization working to close the gap between what is known health problems and what is done to solve them". Its headquarters are in Boston, Massachusetts.
  • National Association of Community Health Centers
    "Founded in 1971, NACHC is the premier national health care organization dedicated exclusively to expanding health care access for the medically underserved through the community-based health care model. In this role, NACHC represents and supports the collective mission and interests of America’s Health Centers nationwide network of more than 900 community-based health centers which provide comprehensive primary care and preventive services to more than 10 million people in all the 50 states, Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Guam"
  • National Association of County and City Health Officials
    A non-governmental organization aiming at improving local public health policies and programs
  • National Association for Public Health Statistics and Information Systems
  • National Association of Local Boards of Health - " to provide a national voice for the concerns of Local Boards of Health and to assist Local Boards of Health in obtaining the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to protect and promote public health in their communities"
  • National Children's Cancer Society - "to improve the quality of life for children with cancer and to reduce the risk of cancer by promoting children's health through financial and in-kind assistance, advocacy, support services, education and prevention programs"
  • National Health Law Program, Inc.- "a national public interest law firm that seeks to improve health care for America's working and unemployed poor, minorities, the elderly, and people with disabilities. NHeLP serves legal services programs, community organizations, the private bar, providers and individuals who work to preserve a health care safety net for the millions of uninsured or underinsured low-income people"
  • National Low Income Housing Coalition/LIHIS - "the only national organization dedicated solely to ending America's affordable housing crisis. The NLIHC is committed to educating, organizing, and advocating to ensure decent, affordable housing within healthy neighborhoods for everyone"
  • National Pediatric and Family HIV Resource Center - "a non-profit organization that serves professionals who care for children, adolescents and families with HIV infection and AIDS. Founded in 1990, the Center offers education, consultation, technical assistance, and training for health and social service professionals"
  • National Women's Health Network - " a nonprofit health advocacy organization founded in 1975 to give women a greater voice in the health care system in the United States. The Network advocates for better federal policy on women's health and, through its Information Clearinghouse, provides women with information and resources to assist them in making better health care decisions. The Network is supported by 12,000 individual and 300 organizational members. The Network does not accept funding from either pharmaceutical or medical device manufacturers"
  • National Women's Health Resource Center
  • National Youth Development Information Center (NYDIC) - "provides practice-related information about youth development to national and local youth-serving organizations at low cost or no cost. Between 60 to 80 percent of all adolescents participate in nonschool programs. Many programs increasingly employ a youth development approach to deliver their services. They purposefully meet the needs of youth by building the competencies necessary for young people to become successful adults. NYDIC provides these community programs with the information tools they need to improve their services"
  • NEHA - National Environmental Health Association
  • National League for Nursing
  • National Rural Health Association
  • Public Health Foundation
    The Foundation aims "to assist official state and local public health agencies' efforts to promote and protect the health of people living within their respective jurisdictions. PHF serves the needs of public health professionals and the communities they serve by: Translating and disseminating existing research and best practices, Developing new knowledge for improving the practice of public health, and Disseminating professional development activities to build skills and competence throughout the public health workforce. PHF serves as an independent organization providing objective research, professional development, and technical support to public health practice associations and agencies"
  • Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
    The Foundation is "based in Princeton, N.J., is the nation's largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to health and health care. It became a national institution in 1972 with receipt of a bequest from the industrialist whose name it bears, and has since made more than $2 billion in grants. The Foundation concentrates its grantmaking in three goal areas: to assure that all Americans have access to basic health care at reasonable cost; to improve the way services are organized and provided to people with chronic health conditions; and to reduce the personal, social and economic harm caused by substance abuse--tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drugs"
  • Sierra Health Foundation
    The Sierra Health Foundation is "a private, independent foundation that awards grants in support of health and health-related activities in a 26 county region of northern California. Headquartered in Sacramento, the Foundation is one of several California-based philanthropic foundations concentrating on health"
  • Sustainable America
    "A national nonprofit organization with geographically and racially diverse membership of nearly 200 organizations and individuals working in a range of disciplines including worker's rights, environmental sustainability, "high-road" business development, and community design. SA, together with its members are working to create "new economies" in the United States by implementing sustainable economic development models in urban, suburban and rural regions of the country"
  • Wayne County Combined General Health District - this web-site is an interesting case: it's set up by Gregory L. Halley, MD, MBA and though it's located and grounded somewhere in Ohio, it provides rich resources on primary health care and public health. One should promote Gregory for the hard labor he has put into setting up this page. We need more of his kind indeed.
  • Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE)
  • Anchorage Planning Office, Community Health Promotion Section - works closely with the community to develop initiatives which prevent disease and injury and increases the quality of life of the community
  • Van Alen Institute, New York: Projects in Public Architecture, - "the integrity and importance of the physical public realm, which has been the spatial and symbolic binding and boundary of urban life and work, is profoundly challenged by the "cyber" future, the privatization of public places and public institutions, and a host of other technological and cultural changes. The future of public architecture - the physical public realm from streets and parks to schools and housing - is threatened by both indifference and incapacity", the Institute refers in its programs explicitely to the connection of urban

Academic Institutions


National Policy and Related Documents

  • HHS - Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation - Planning Documents
    The ASPE is the principal advisor to the Secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services on policy development
  • National Healthcare Disparities Report 2005
    "The 2005 National Healthcare Disparities Report (NHDR) tracks disparities in both quality of and access to health care in the United States for both the general population and for congressionally designated priority populations. The report presents, in chart format, the latest available findings on quality of and access to health care in the general U.S. population and among priority populations. It focuses on four components of quality—effectiveness, patient safety, timeliness, and patient centeredness—and two components of access—facilitators and barriers to
  • State Profiles - Reforming the Healthcare System 2005
    State Profiles: Reforming the Health Care System 2005 is a compilation of major health system characteristics for each U.S. state, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Published since 1990 by the AARP Public Policy Institute, the State Profiles series was developed to help guide policy discussions among public and private sector leaders in health care throughout the United States.health care and health care utilization."


Reports, Guidelines, and Projects

  • Challenges and Successes in Reducing Health Disparities: Workshop Summary
    "In early 2007, the Institute of Medicine convened the Roundtable on Health Disparities to increase the visibility of racial and ethnic health disparities as a national problem, to further the development of programs and strategies to reduce disparities, to foster the emergence of leadership on this issue, and to track promising activities and developments in health care that could lead to dramatically reducing or eliminating disparities. The Roundtable’s first workshop, Challenges and Successes in Reducing Health Disparities, was held in St. Louis, Missouri, on 31 July, 2007, and examined: (1) the importance of differences in life expectancy within the United States; (2) the reasons for those differences; and (3) the implications of this information for programs and policy makers."
  • Examining the Health Disparities Research Plan of the National Institutes of Health: Unfinished Business
    "This report is an assessment of the National Institutes of Health (NIS) Strategic Research Plan and Budget to Reduce and Ultimately Eliminate Health Disparities and the adequacy of coordination of the development and implementation of the strategic plans across NIH Institutes and centers. "
  • Food Marketing to Children and Youth: Threat or Opportunity?
    This study examines the impact of food marketing on health of children and youth in the United States. It asserts that the food marketing industry intentionally and successfully targets children who are too young to distinguish advertising from truth and induces them to eat high-calorie, low-nutrient (but highly profitable) "junk" foods. The report also suggests a number of strategies to combat this influence.
  • Health in the Americas 2007: United States of America
    As a health agency, the Pan American Health Organization’s core discipline is epidemiology, which enables the measurement, definition, and comparison of health problems and conditions and their distribution from the perspectives of population, geography, and time. This publication on the United States of America addresses the issue of health as a human right, taking into account both the individual and community contexts, and examines various critical determinants of health, including those of a biological, social, cultural, economic, and political nature. That examination reveals the existence of gaps, disparities, and inequities that persist in the United States of America, especially those related to access to basic services, health, nutrition, housing, and adequate living conditions as well as to the lack of opportunities for human development — all of which contribute to the greater vulnerability to diseases and health risks of some population groups. [Adapted from the preface of Health in the Americas 2007]. The US-Mexico border area.
  • Health Protection in the 21st Century: Understanding the Burden of Disease: Preparing for the Future
    The 21st Century has seen the emergence of new public health problems, including environmental hazards such as pollution from transport, an increased number of chemicals in everyday use, global warming, disposal of waste at landfill sites and building on contaminated land, together with the emergence of new infections such as SARS and avian flu. This report represents a first step in identifying and quantifying wherever possible the burden of disease for both of these new threats and those areas of health protection which remain a concern, such as respiratorydisease, poisons and injuries in the United States
  • Health United States 2005 with Chartbook on Trends in the Health of Americans
    "Health, United States is an annual report on trends in health statistics. The report consists of two main sections: A chartbook containing text and figures that illustrates major trends in the health of Americans; and a trend tables section that contains 156 detailed data tables. The two main components are supplemented by an executive summary, a highlights section, an extensive appendix and reference section, and an index."
  • Health United States 2006 with Chartbook on Trends in the Health of Americans
    Health, United States, 2006, is the 30th annual report on the health status of the Nation prepared by the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services for the President and Congress. In a chartbook and 147 detailed tables, it provides an annual picture of health for the entire Nation. Trends are presented on health status and health care utilization, resources, and expenditures.
  • Hunger in America 2006: National Report Prepared for America's Second Harvest Final Report March 2006
    "…Despite America's great wealth, millions of Americans do not have enough food to eat each day. More than 25 million people use food banks and food-rescue organizations in America's Second Harvest -The Nation’s Food Bank Network (A2H), the nation’s largest network of emergency food providers - each year. This report presents the result of a study conducted in 2005 for Second Harvest. It provides a comprehensive profile of the incidence and nature of hunger and food insecurity in the U.S. The study provides extensive demographic profiles of emergency food clients at charitable feeding agencies and comprehensive information on the nature and efficacy of local agencies in meeting the food security needs."
  • Reaching for a Healthier Life: Facts on Socioeconomic Status and Health in the U.S.
    "Reaching for a Healthier Life is the result of a decade of work by the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on SES & Health. This multidisciplinary group of scientists has examined the pathways by which socioeconomic status ‘gets into the body’ to affect health and longevity. There is no single pathway by which this occurs. Rather, resources associated with where people stand on the social ladder shape multiple aspects of their lives in ways that affect their health and well-being."
  • Reported Health and Health-influencing Behaviors Among Urban American Indians and Alaska Natives: An Analysis of Data Collected by the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System
    On March 5th, 2008, the Urban Indian Health Institute releases their ground breaking report titled: Reported Health and Health-Influencing Behaviors Among Urban American Indians and Alaska Natives. The report was released at a Native Symposium titled, Through Native Eyes: Identity, Perception and Recognition. “…The report finds additional evidence that American Indians and Alaska Natives living in urban areas face major hurdles in reaching health status similar to their fellow Americans. Findings from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, a national telephone survey conducted yearly and coordinated by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), show America Indians and Alaska Natives living in selected urban areas were more likely to report difficulty accessing health care, had higher rates of risk behavior, and experienced worse health outcomes than the general population. Income differences were shown to play a role in explaining some of the health disparities, but differences in some reported health indicators were not income dependent….”


Educational Resources




Original website founded Lucien E. Schlosser and Eberhard Wenzel, 1997.
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School of Public Health and Community Medicine

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The VL:PH site is maintained
by the School of Public Health and Community Medicine.

Dedicated to the
memory of
Eberhard Wenzel
(1950-2001)

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