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Office of Performance Improvement (OPI)

This SCHSAC workgroup is no longer active.

MATCH: Mobilizing Action Toward Community Health Ad Hoc Group (2010)

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Charge

In preparation for the release of the County Health Rankings in early February 2010, the SCHSAC is convening a small ad hoc group. The group will participate in several pre-release planning conference calls with the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) in order to promote coordinated communications within Minnesota about the Rankings; and equip community health boards with the information and tools necessary to engage in meaningful conversations about the Rankings at the local level.

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Background

In January 2009, the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute began a three-year project, supported by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), entitled Mobilizing Action Toward Community Health (MATCH). One of the project’s objectives is to increase the awareness of the broad determinants of health. To meet this, the MATCH team is preparing county health rankings for each state in the nation. These rankings will be released early February 2010 in every state in the United States.

The County Health Rankings are based on a model of population health that emphasizes the many factors—clinical care access and quality of care, health behaviors, social and economic factors, and the physical environment—that, if improved, can help people lead healthier lives and make communities healthier places to live, work, learn and play.

The Rankings are a “Call to Action” for communities to improve their health by developing multi-sector partnerships and innovative strategies to address the broad determinants of health. This model has been used to rank the health of counties in Wisconsin for the past six years. A similar model has also been recently used in Tennessee, Kansas, and New Mexico. The Rankings stimulate discussion and action within communities, regardless of how they are ranked, and can lead to policies, programs and other decisions aimed at improving health. Each state’s counties will be ranked on both health outcomes (today’s health) and health determinants (representing tomorrow’s health).

For more information, visit www.countyhealthrankings.org.

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Methods

Ad hoc group members will participate in two to three ad hoc group meetings via phone conference between the months of December 2009 and February 2010. Ideally, members will also be available to participate in three MATCH project webinars (1.5 hours each) hosted by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute in December 2009 and January 2010.