Population Health: Curriculum Framework for an Emerging Discipline

Abstract

“Population health” has come to describe an array of initiatives supporting new care and reimbursement models that reward health outcomes rather than volume of services. However, without a standard definition of population health and a comprehensive inventory of the core competencies and knowledge its practitioners must possess, ongoing efforts to address community health outcomes will be hampered. A literature search of peer-reviewed and gray literature, a curriculum scan of current graduate health programs, and an expert panel of industry stakeholders were conducted to develop a comprehensive curriculum framework that broadly defines population health. The result is a concept map consisting of 6 domains—3 knowledge and 3 skills-based—and subcategories. This article discusses the implications for teaching population health and the need for further scholarship to define the field from the point of view of health system leaders, academics, and others who need to hire health professionals with these skills. (Population Health Management 2016;19:39–45)