Transforming the Definition of Children's Health

Transforming Health Care to Deliver the Healthiest Generation of Americans
Improving the health and well-being of children today leads to healthier adults and improves the quality of life for families for generations. Improved health leads to improved workforce productivity and reduces health care-related costs to individuals, companies, governments and communities. This strengthens our country and the American economy for years to come.
Children Are Not Only the Future, They Hold the Solution
Children account for only about 7% of total medical care spending, yet will soon become 100% of the adult population. The benefits of intervention in childhood can last a lifetime, and positively impact medical spending when they become adults. These interventions can even impact health and medical care for the next generation. Families want and need help from their pediatrician or primary care provider.
What Are Pediatric Social Determinants of Health?
According to The World Health Organization, they are the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age. These circumstances are shaped by the distribution of money, power and resources at global, national and local levels. The social determinants of health are mostly responsible for health inequities, affecting whether a variety of medical conditions are diagnosed and treated in some individuals, while others do not seek or receive care at all.

Addressing the Social Determinants of Health in Children
Medical care represents only a fraction of what we should consider when we think about health. The rest includes things like social determinants of health, in their various forms. This includes education, literacy, housing, safety, freedom from adverse childhood experiences and other social factors.
What Nemours Is Doing to Address the Pediatric Social Determinants of Health
Nemours is working toward a solution by investing in what we call a Value-Based Services Organization (VBSO) with four prongs — medical management, data analytics and IT, population health management, and primary care — moving toward full capitated risk. The goal: improve health outcomes, quality of care, accessibility, quality of life, and reduce costs.
How Nemours Children’s Health System Is Working Toward a Solution:
- National Coalition Calls for Creating New White House-led Focus on Children and Youth »
- Growing the Economy: Children, Health and the American Worker (PDF)
- How Children Can Transform the Economy … and Health Care (PDF)
- Parents Have Their Say – A Survey: Redefining Health for the Well-being of Children (PDF)
- 4th Annual Value-Based Care Summit: Nurturing a Culture of Value-Based Care for Lasting Results (PDF)
- Becker’s 11th Annual Meeting: Adapting Business Models to Address Social Determinants of Health (PDF)
- Pediatric Moneyball: Technology, Consumerism & Population Health
In The News
- Nemours' Health CEO Makes Economic Case for Investment in Pediatrics
- NEJM Catalyst: Lessons from CEOs - Health Care Leaders Nationwide Respond to the Covid-19 Crisis
- Forbes: Forging A Central Role For Health Systems In Community Partnerships
- The Hill: COVID-19 and Telehealth
- Q/A With Modern Healthcare
- FierceHealthcare: Executive Spotlight
- HealthLeaders: Let’s Invest More in Kids’ Health
- Children’s Hospital Association: A Leader’s Perspective
- HealthAffairs: Integrating Pediatric Care and Taking on Risk to Improve Health
- U.S. News & World Report: How Hospitals Can Impact the Social Determinants of Health
- Revcycle Intelligence: Achieving Value-Based Care Results
- Healthcare Innovation: Improving the Health of Populations
- Healthcare Innovation: Leaping Forward Into the Future of Population Health
- Modern Healthcare: Fee-for-Service Limits Long-Term Work on Social Determinants
- NEJM Catalyst — Lessons From CEOs: COVID-19