Health Beyond Medicine: Field Guide for Evidence-based Community Health Projects

<p dir="ltr">Solving many of our biggest health problems requires a vision of disease causation broader than the bio-medical model. With historical vignettes, illustrations, humor, links to resources, and case studies, <i>Health Beyond Medicine:</i><i> </i><i>Field guide for evidence-based community health projects</i><i> </i>will help readers find an appreciation of the Epidemiologic Triangle and the public health paradigm. We know a lot about how to improve community health but there is a huge gap between what we know and what we do.</p><p dir="ltr">Bridging that gap depends on developing skills for implementing effective, evidence-based community health action locally and globally. Topics in this guide include: addressing social determinants of health; partnering with community organizations; predicting health impact of interventions; self-awareness of the culture of medicine; project design and management; evaluation on a shoestring; public speaking, talking to the media and other communications; legislative advocacy and “changing the world” in an hour a month; sustainability beyond grant-writing; behavior change.</p><p dir="ltr">The curriculum in this field guide has been replicated at sites across the US and the resultant community-based projects have won multiple national awards. This material has been taught successfully to health professionals from Pediatrics, Preventive Medicine, Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, and Psychology.</p><p><br></p><p dir="ltr">Andy Aligne is Director of the <a href="http://www.hoekelmancenter.org/" target="_blank">Hoekelman Center for Health Beyond Medicine </a>in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Rochester School of Medicine, Rochester, New York.</p><p><br></p>