To Truly Transform Health in California, We Need to Invest in Healthy Communities [calhealthreport.org]

Alicia Doktor 2/5/194:02 PM

Gavin Newsom kicked off his term as governor by unveiling several health care proposals on his first day in office—a welcome development for the many California residents who, according to recent polls, say universal health care is one of their top priorities.

But to truly transform health and achieve health equity in our state, we need to address the community conditions that determine whether we will be healthy and safe in the first place, long before the medical system gets involved.

That means not just health care for all, but healthy communities for all.

[For more on this story by Juliet Sims and Matt Willis, go to http://www.calhealthreport.org...healthy-communities/]

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Vincent J. Felitti, MDMember

If the health care of our State is to be improved, one key step will be to improve the basis for understanding a person's health status. The most important component of that understanding comes from a comprehensive medical history from each patient. Obtained by conventional techniques, this is very time consuming, hence expensive, hence usually carried out superficially. Because of that, I would like to propose that there be created the California Health Index, a uniquely comprehensive medical history questionnaire, posted free on the Internet, which anyone can fill out anonymously at home, adding their name after disconnecting. Then, if they wish, they can print that out for their physician who can further refine any unclear details.

This will be an unfamiliar concept to most readers; therefore, I have attached an article describing its effects in a multi-year, 440,000 adult patient sample in San Diego's Kaiser Permanente operations. The benefits were significant diagnostically, treatment-wise, and economically, especially when ACE questions were routinely integrated into a detailed, adult, biomedical history questionnaire.