Improving Population Health through the Intersection of Public Health, healthcare, and Everything in Between

Collaboration of public health, healthcare, and diverse sectors are necessary ingredients to improving population health. Unfortunately, despite increasing healthcare costs projected to reach $5.5 billion by 2030, “health outcomes in the United States continue to fall behind other developed countries”.1 Over the past twenty years the global burden of mortality and morbidity has shifted from communicable diseases to noncommunicable diseases and associated risk factors. Specifically, rural America, which comprises a majority of the Midwest, is disproportionately affected by health outcomes due to social, economic, and environmental factors.