About the Center for Health and Community
The Center for Health and Community (CHC) aims to improve individual and population health through research and teaching addressing the social, behavioral and policy aspects of health and health care. Its unique structure supports and links faculty from all four Schools whose work addresses this wide range of determinants of health and also houses its own programs of research and education in focal areas.
CHC’s 200+ members represent both basic and applied social and behavioral scientists in epidemiology, health policy, anthropology, psychology, sociology, history, informatics, bioethics, economics, and clinical research. CHC members share an awareness that we cannot isolate physical diseases from our emotions, behaviors, and the experiences linked to where we live, work, and play. We encourage and support multidisciplinary collaborations designed to promote comprehensive approaches to health problems, and to bridge the gap between biomedical and social science.
CHC researchers aim not only to improve overall health, but also to reduce disparities in health between more- and less-advantaged groups to achieve greater “health equity”. We bring a variety of theories and methods to bear on this problem. Our work includes lab-based basic studies of causal mechanisms, observational research linking social exposures to health outcomes, intervention research testing innovative approaches, implementation research to improve uptake of successful interventions, and dissemination of new knowledge and approaches.
More than half of premature deaths can be prevented through changes in behavior, environment, and socioeconomic factors-a fact that has been largely ignored by traditional medicine. The Center places special research emphasis on the human side of health care, on who the patient is rather than what disease the patient has.
CHC and its members play important roles in training the next generation of clinicians and researchers to recognize and address social, behavioral and policy determinants of health. In the School of Medicine, for example, we have developed innovative curricula for both pre-clinical and clinical years for physicians to promote their understanding of the contributions of non-biological factors to health, disease, and recovery and prepares them to work in a complex socio-political professional environment that crosses traditional boundaries.