Last week we talked about Social Determinants of Health and their integration into primary care practice. This made me reflect on my journey from writing my undergrad research paper on The Effects of Socioeconomic Status on Health as a Health Promotion student to my position now at HealthLandscape.
During my time at George Mason University most of education was focused on general personal health and healing those who might be deemed “unhealthy” mentally or physically. However a few classes at the end of my school career looked into the relationship between health promotion and social determinants of health and started to shift my focus. We had open discussions on focusing on preventive health and looking into health of communities and defined populations. More and more I started hearing about the concept that someone’s ZIP Code was more important than their genetic code.
My initial interest in the major of Health Promotion was the having the opportunity of just touching favorably on the lives of others through improving health in individuals. I had always imagined this as a one-on-one experience. But as the conversation changed to preventive health, the idea of helping communities and defined populations appealed to me. This is why I am still so excited to be part of HealthLandscape. Our tools help bring together various sources of health, socio-economic and environmental information in a convenient, central location to help answer questions about and improve health and healthcare. Although my position now might seem like a stretch from my initial goals and passions for improving health; I like to think of myself as a link in the chain for health and health care.
Claire Meehan
HealthLandscape
User Engagement Specialist
For more information about HealthLandscape visit http://www.healthlandscape.org/
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