Health Affairs

Here are some recent foundation blog posts that caught my eye. The subjects are varied, so there is something for everybody to read! Environmental Health; Disaster Planning On April 29 Lauren Linville, a communications associate with the Health and Environmental Funders Network (HEFN), wrote on its Giving Insight blog about lessons learned during Hurricane Sandy. In “Six... Read the rest of this entry »

GrantWatch Blog invited Matthew Ingram of the Metta Fund, a health foundation that awards grants in San Francisco, to talk about a new program it is funding. Most of us can remember a coach who affected us profoundly at some point in our lives, and to whom we owe the credit for making suggestions that,... Read the rest of this entry »

Everyone in the nonprofit world is all too aware of the fact that start-up funding for worthwhile projects is often hard to obtain from hard-pressed grantors. And even if nonprofits or social enterprises that are just getting off the ground (or innovative projects at established entities) do manage to get funded, there is the perennial... Read the rest of this entry »

This post first appeared on Health Affairs Blog on January 23. Great struggles sometimes result in unexpected opportunities.  In the waning moments of 2012, Congress remained in session to bridge partisan divides to solve the fiscal cliff impasse with the passage of the American Taxpayer Relief Act (ATRA). Signing the ATRA into law also achieved policy change on... Read the rest of this entry »

The author is program director of the John A. Hartford Foundation, a national funder based in New York City. He is editor and contributor for its blog, Health AGEnda. For more than twenty years, the John A. Hartford Foundation has worked to improve the health of older Americans. And over that time, institutionally, we have... Read the rest of this entry »

It has been a long time since I have done a round-up of posts on other philanthropy blogs that have caught my eye, so today is the day! Other topics covered below include social determinants of health (specifically, housing), “tasksharing” in global health, and charities’ use of data. I love having the opportunity to peruse the... Read the rest of this entry »

On December 4, this funder, based in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, announced its intent to invest nearly $13 million in health care funding to four national nonprofits and more than a dozen other locally and regionally focused organizations. Support will include not only cash grants but donations of health information technology. The Verizon Foundation aims to reduce... Read the rest of this entry »

My GrantWatch column in the September issue of Health Affairs, “Mental Health: What Foundations Are Funding,” provides a snapshot of foundation efforts around the country to help people who suffer from mental illness. A variety of funders are interested in this topic. In my small sampling, it appears that support for integrated health care, in... Read the rest of this entry »

This week, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a national plan to prevent and effectively treat Alzheimer’s disease by 2025. The National Alzheimer’s Project Act, legislation that was passed unanimously by both houses of Congress (yes, you read that correctly!) in 2010 required HHS to come up with a plan, said... Read the rest of this entry »

If you are taking some time off this week for Easter or Passover, you may want to dust off that resumé and apply for one of these positions. I have included a few interesting points about each position, but read the full position description for many more details. These jobs were posted on foundation websites... Read the rest of this entry »

Derek Yach, senior vice president for global health and agriculture policy at PepsiCo, was one of the plenary speakers at the recent Grantmakers In Health (GIH) Annual Meeting, held in Baltimore. A strategist, Yach previously has held positions at the Rockefeller Foundation, Yale University, and the World Health Organization (WHO). His remarks provided “food for... Read the rest of this entry »

Here are some blog posts that caught my eye this week, as I sifted through foundation blogs I follow. The descriptions are brief—just to give you a flavor of what the post is about.  This is a short week in the office for me, as I head over to nearby Baltimore for the Grantmakers In... Read the rest of this entry »

The author explains the concept and how it can help safety-net patients. David also alerts us to the Health Home Innovation Fund, managed by Tides’s Community Clinics Initiative and funded by the California Endowment. He thanks Jane Stafford, managing director of the initiative, for her help with this post. Among the many provisions of the Affordable Care Act, one of the most... Read the rest of this entry »

Read about the New York State Health Foundation’s “five-year, $35 million campaign to reverse the diabetes epidemic [in the Empire State] by improving clinical care, sustaining a comprehensive and coordinated care system, and promoting prevention.” The GrantWatch Profile in the January 2012 issue of Health Affairs, titled “New York State Health Foundation’s Diabetes Campaign Is Influencing... Read the rest of this entry »

Why did the Duke Endowment decide to select disease prevention as one of its three major funding areas in health care? Why would a private foundation invest in programs and infrastructure to prevent disease when the number of uninsured is growing and there is not enough funding available to treat people burdened with chronic disease? ... Read the rest of this entry »

The author, who is president of the Pfizer Foundation, spoke at a UN meeting this week on noncommunicable diseases. The United Nations (UN) has been hosting its High-Level Meeting on Non-Communicable Diseases September 16–21 in New York City. This is an important opportunity to highlight the alarming incidence of chronic diseases in developing countries and... Read the rest of this entry »

Editor’s note: You’ve heard of an Accountable Care Organization, haven’t you? Now read about a new initiative—an Accountable Care Community—in this northeastern Ohio city. In response to chronic health conditions, the Austen BioInnovation Institute in Akron (ABIA), its founding members, and numerous community organizations have joined to launch a first-of-its-kind Accountable Care Community, which will use... Read the rest of this entry »

Jim Knickman, whom many of you know from his current job as president and CEO of the New York State Health Foundation (and/or his former job as a vice president of research and evaluation at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation) wrote a column this week for the Huffington Post. His topic was diabetes prevention, which... Read the rest of this entry »

Use of fluoride is known to reduce tooth decay. Earlier this month, the federal government announced plans to lower the amount of fluoride in water because of concerns that some children were receiving too much of it. This prompted me to revisit the subject of oral health and what some foundations around the country have... Read the rest of this entry »

More than 30 million uninsured people will acquire either public or private insurance over the next five years as a result of the Affordable Care Act of 2010. What does this mean for foundations promoting healthier communities by investing in increased access to health care? In short, it means new opportunities, especially for foundations that... Read the rest of this entry »