Jessie Tenenbaum

The Population Health Alliance is the only membership-based program serving all healthcare stakeholders who have skin in the game on Population Health. We all know there is so much work to do to improve the equity, access, outcomes and costs in the U.S. healthcare system. By coming together to drive change we create better outcomes. Please join us and bring your voice to the table. Contact me directly or our Executive Director Thomas Stefaniak, MBA, CAE with inquiries about joining our Alliance! As a member you can actively serve on one of our committees focused on driving REAL change in healthcare! #populationhealth #populationhealthmanagement #healthoutcomes #healthcaretransformation

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Since 1992, Age-of-majority policy has done more for #publichealth in tobacco policy than anything FDA has done or will do! Come at me former FDA Crats!! About The Study: This study found that early adoption and implementation of Tobacco 21 (T21) policies (minimum age of 21 for legal access to tobacco products) maximizes potential premature mortality reductions. However, the strength of T21 policies and enforcement varies widely across states. Enforcement of the federal T21 law is critical in the 8 states without state-level T21 cigarette policies of their own. https://lnkd.in/gSWtev7x

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Incorporating lived experience into research is incredibly important to inform and contextualize the findings and analyses we perform on quantitative data sets. Looking forward to this series by RWJF!

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The National Institutes of Health is exploring how artificial intelligence can be trained using multiple data sources to improve accuracy and predictive qualities.​ Training data ranges from medical records to Internet of Things devices. ​ Read more: https://bit.ly/4b3HUFs ​ #ArtificialIntelligence #HealthcareAI #AI​

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🔬 Exciting news from EYEnexo! They have been awarded $245,148 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), specifically The National Institutes of Health and the NIH National Institute on Aging. This funding will support their groundbreaking project on computer vision-powered automation for assessing early Alzheimer's disease. 🧠 Alzheimer's disease is a prevalent neurodegenerative condition, and early diagnosis remains a significant challenge. Eyenexo aims to develop an automated rodent behavior testing system to identify early Alzheimer's by analyzing defensive behaviors triggered by looming stimuli. This innovative approach could revolutionize Alzheimer's research by providing a novel assessment method and reducing costs. 📅 This SBIR grant will support Eyenexo's research for 23 months, starting from September 10, 2024, and concluding on August 31, 2026. #SBIR #STTR #AlzheimersResearch #Innovation

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Sharing this milestone from HHS Tribal Affairs with pride for my current and former #tribal and #tribalepidemiologycenter colleagues’ contributions to making this happen and hope that this will open a new chapter in exercising their #publichealth authority. “HHS Releases Final Tribal Data Access and Tribal Epidemiology Center (TEC) Data Access Policies: Today, as part of the White House Tribal Nations Summit , HHS Deputy Secretary Andrea Palm announced the release of the Department's first ever Tribal and TEC Data Access Policies. The policies were shaped by extensive Tribal consultation and Tribal engagement. The Department-wide policies clarify the right for Tribes and TECs to receive data as Public Health Authorities, establish HHS protocols and timelines for responding to Tribal and TEC data requests, and streamline information about available data and points of contact in a new Tribal Data Access website (https://lnkd.in/eXRVh_f3). By improving and clarifying how the Department will provide Data to Tribes and Tribal Epidemiology Centers, HHS seeks to advance the health and wellbeing of AI/AN people and eliminate data disparities facing Tribes. These policies will help ensure the Department is sharing data with Tribes to the maximum extent permissible under federal laws, regulations, and existing agreements, and enhance the social, physical, spiritual, economic, and health status of AI/AN communities.”

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How do we balance privacy and interoperability? Probably the same way we balance individual freedoms and collective freedoms in the United States. In this week's episode, Kelly Nieves and I wax poetic about the challenges that exist to health data security without an explicit right to privacy, but how that may create a boom for information sharing and interoperability.

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When Shannon Germain Farraher MBA, BSN and I wrote about #MedicalDeserts in Forrester’s 2024 #predictions report, we hoped what we saw in our crystal ball wouldn’t come true. But as Arielle Trzcinski and I saw headline after headline this year, we knew we’d (sadly) gotten it right. In this episode of the What It Means #podcast, Arielle and I serve up some cold, hard truths about how medical deserts are spreading quickly across the entire country — and we also recommend how the entire healthcare ecosystem of #payers / #HealthInsurers, #HealthcareProviders, #HealthSystems, #Goverment and regulatory bodies, and #retailers can help reverse this terrible curse. #HealthcareCustomerExperience #HCX

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An innovative approach for accelerating Drug discovery applying Chemoproteomics & Machine learning (ML)!! 🧩 The Missing Puzzle Pieces: Most of the proteins in our bodies lack small-molecule partners, making it hard to understand how they work or find treatments for diseases. ➡️ Application of a novel Search Strategy: A method was developed to find these missing partners by testing hundreds of small molecules and developing predictive models using ML classifiers (computer based) to predict how they interact with proteins. 💡Findings: Thousands of interactions between small molecules & proteins were found, including some promising candidates for new treatments targeting specific proteins involved in diseases. 🧑‍🔬 ML Framework: ML models were developed to predict fragment interactions with native proteins on a proteome-wide scale, including quantitative & qualitative interactome signatures. These models based on user-defined input of target proteins enable prediction of fragment binding to custom protein sets… Or simply put they could predict how these molecules interact with proteins. ❓Impact: The work helps us understand how proteins work & enables accelerating drug discovery efforts.

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There is so much to further unpack here on the healthcare equity side. So I will just highlight what attacks on Medicaid would accomplish in combination with these findings. The net result would be a systemic reduction in available healthcare services and likelihood of service to many already poorly served communities. Observe a further hardening of access to care being closely linked to class and race. #healthequity #medicaid

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A major blow to research funding, and to the accelerating of research advances and precision medicine. We need to invest in this type of dataset, allowing researchers widely to access data from surveys, genomic analyses, EHR, and wearables! #NIH #allofus #precisionmedicine #research #researchadministration #diversityequityinclusion #DEIB #highereducation #EHR #electronichealthrecord #health #medicalresearch #genomic #genome NACUBO NCURA: National Council of University Research Administrators Society of Research Administrators International https://lnkd.in/gMxckPJp

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A recent study from Duke Health researchers highlights the importance of sustainable funding and clearly defined outcomes when addressing patients' health-related social needs (HRSN). The research, published in JAMA Network Open, describes how Duke Health has successfully used NCCARE360/Unite Us to create and track referrals, monitor connections to community-based organizations (CBOs), and measure successful connection rate (SCR) to understand patient receipt of real benefit. 🔑 One Key Finding: An analysis of 115,316 social referrals for 55,000+ unique patients found that successful connection to services was associated with funding and intermediary support for CBOs. For example, "the SCR for the food domain (the only domain to receive continued funding) remained the same" throughout the study period. This important research showcases the value of solutions to financially support our community. Unite Us Payments offers one path where funders can reimburse CBOs at scale for the important services they provide while measuring the success of social care funding initiatives. By supporting the financial sustainability of CBOs and leveraging patient-centered success metrics, we can all partner to meaningfully contribute to the successful integration of health and social care. Read more: https://lnkd.in/gPvaGzae #Health #Community #Healthcare #ClosedLoop #Payments Duke University Health System Duke Health Duke University Medical Center

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Correction: Here is a link to the open-access version of the commentary: https://lnkd.in/enETHzFR

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Quality of life (QoL) for #dialysis and #CKD patients is far more than what lab results or quick assessments can capture. Too often, #nephrologists rely on lab values to “define” how well a patient should feel, as though numbers alone could reflect someone’s daily experience. Labs are necessary for treatment but should not dictate whether a patient is considered to have a good QoL. The reality is, labs can be misleading. Factors like improper blood handling or coagulated samples frequently produce inaccurate results. Yet, many nephrologists treat these numbers as absolute, dismissing patients’ own reports of feeling unwell. How often do patients hear, “Your labs look fine; you should feel fine”? This approach fails to respect the deeper, personal experiences that define QoL. True understanding of QoL requires more than a five-minute check-in or a once-a-year form. Standardized self-assessments are surface-level attempts at understanding, skimming over the complexity of a person’s mental health, daily struggles, and what makes life meaningful to them. A number or checkbox can’t represent what a fulfilling life looks like. To understand QoL, nephrologists must spend time in real, in-depth conversations with patients. This is not about quick fixes or checklists. It’s about asking questions that go beyond the data and allow patients to express their reality: 🚶 “Can you walk or move comfortably?” ❤️ “Are there moments in your day that bring you joy?” 🏠 “Are you able to manage your daily responsibilities?” 💬 “Do you feel emotionally supported?” 🛏️ “Are you sleeping well?” These questions require empathy, time, and connection—far beyond what a lab report can offer. Patients know what QoL means for them. Nephrologists must listen to patients as the primary voices defining it. As someone who has repeatedly highlighted this issue, it’s frustrating that many social workers and nephrologists continue to focus only on labs and self-assessment forms. Quality of life is deeper than an annual review or a quick “all looks fine.” It’s not just about treatment compliance; it’s about hearing the patient as a whole person. To the nephrologists who think they can determine QoL based solely on lab numbers: take a step back and realize that a lab result can’t capture the full scope of a person’s life experience. Patients deserve more than a clinical judgment; they deserve to be seen and understood. Central Florida Kidney Specialists National Kidney Foundation American Kidney Fund

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Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services star rating system, designed to assess healthcare quality, is flawed and disproportionately harms #dialysis patients. The system prioritizes lab values—like blood pressure, dialysis adequacy, and hospitalization rates—over real patient-centered outcomes. While these metrics are useful, they don’t capture the full picture of a dialysis patient’s quality of life, including comfort, mental health, and daily functionality. By emphasizing lab-based metrics, Medicare’s system pushes facilities into a compliance-driven model focused on numbers rather than meaningful care. Facilities often prioritize hitting specific targets that improve their ratings, even if it compromises the personalized care patients need. For dialysis patients, this can mean protocols that meet lab standards but ignore their comfort or emotional needs. Patient satisfaction is part of the star rating, but it carries less weight than clinical measures. Many patients report feeling unsupported and rushed, yet these experiences are overshadowed by lab results. In a system where facilities are rated more on metrics than on patient experience, the patient’s voice is often lost. Medicare’s approach also fails to account for social determinants of health—such as transportation access, income level, or support systems—that significantly impact patient outcomes. Facilities in underserved areas often receive lower ratings due to socioeconomic challenges that affect metrics like hospitalization rates. This penalizes clinics that serve vulnerable populations, limiting patient options and widening healthcare disparities rather than addressing them. The star rating system also stifles innovation in care. To maintain high ratings, facilities might avoid flexible treatment options, mental health services, or other holistic approaches that improve patients’ lives but don’t align with Medicare’s narrow criteria. Instead, facilities are often forced into a “one-size-fits-all” approach, which doesn’t serve the unique needs of dialysis patients. Ultimately, Medicare’s rating system creates a cycle of impersonal, standardized care, where dialysis patients are reduced to data points. Facilities, particularly those in disadvantaged areas, struggle to keep resources and patients due to poor ratings, limiting accessible care for those who need it most. For dialysis patients, whose well-being depends on empathy and personalized support, Medicare’s star system falls short. They deserve a rating system that respects their full experience and values more than just numbers on a chart.

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Did you know about the new #AI policy at NIH? The National Institutes of Health issued a new Centralized Resource of Policies and Practices for Promoting Responsible Use of Artificial Intelligence via the Office of Science Policy (OSP). OSP has issued this new resource to assist the #research community in understanding how NIH policies guide artificial intelligence (AI)-related research. The purpose of the resource is to illustrate the applicability of existing policies and guidance to research involving AI technologies. The resource can be accessed at: https://lnkd.in/d6rKqNHm. How will this impact #womenshealth and industry? Read here to find out! #health #digitalhealth #healthIT

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