Learning from the Past to Build a Whole-Person Health System

When Georgetown University formed its School of Health last year, college officials deliberately left out the word "public" from the name – not as a slight against the profession, as dean Christopher King explains, but to indicate an emphasis on overall population health and wellbeing, not just traditional public-health initiatives like clean water and road safety. King joins the podcast to discuss the interconnected non-medical factors that determine the wildly disparate health outcomes in the United States, from race to housing to food. While there's never been more attention on the social determinants of health, King challenges leaders to dive into the history of forces like gentrification, redlining, and discrimination to identify the sources of health care inequality – and start plotting a course toward lasting change. Read King's article in Health Affairs, "Race, Place, and Structural Racism: A Review of Health and History in Washington, D.C.": https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/full/10.1377/hlthaff.2021.01805 Learn more about the Georgetown School of Health: https://health.georgetown.edu/