Three population health efforts from across the country have been named finalists for the 2019 Hearst Health Prize, sponsored by Hearst Health, in partnership with the Jefferson College of Population Health in Philadelphia.
The three finalists will present at Jefferson College of Population Health’s 19th Annual Population Health Colloquium in Philadelphia on March 18, 2019. On March 19, the winner of the $100,000 award will be announced at the event and the other two finalists will each receive $25,000.
The prize recognizes organizations and individuals that have made outstanding achievements in managing or improving population health. Here are the three finalists:
• Arkansas SAVES (AR SAVES): Administered by the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) in partnership with the state’s Medicaid agency, AR SAVES provides real-time, interactive neurological consultation through its telestroke platform in rural and medically underserved areas across the state. Patients are primarily treated with alteplase, a clot-dissolving medication used to improve neurological recovery and reduce incident of death and disability, before being transferred to a tertiary hospital for monitoring. In 2017, at three months nearly 70 percent of AR SAVES patients made a full recovery or recovery with slight issues from stroke.
• Mental health Outreach for MotherS (MOMS) Partnership: Emerging from the Yale School of Medicine, the Mental health Outreach for Mothers (MOMS) Partnership interrupts intergenerational poverty by improving the mental health of overburdened and under-resourced mothers. The program meets mothers where they are in the community at grocery stores, after-school programs and community centers and provides mental health services paired with incentives that meet their basic health needs, such as diapers, feminine hygiene products and paper products. After participating in the program, 75 percent of mothers experienced a decrease in depression and a 67 percent decrease in parenting stress.
• Sharp Transitions program: Sharp Transitions provides home-based palliative care for patients with advanced and progressive chronic illness but who are not ready for hospice care. Bringing care to the patients and their families improves quality of life for the entire family. The impact of the Transitions program has resulted in a significant decrease in inpatient hospital mortality; emergency department visits and hospitalizations; and reduced healthcare costs for patients with cancer, COPD, heart failure and dementia.
“The Hearst Health Prize is an amazing vehicle to advance the population health agenda on a national level and provide replicable models for other organizations seeking to improve the health and quality of life for Americans,” Jefferson College of Population Health Dean David B. Nash, M.D., said in a prepared statement.
