Elizabeth Bradley, a professor at the Yale School of Public Health, and Jenney Samuelson, assistant director of Vermont’s Blueprint for Health, will be among the featured speakers at the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut forum, ‘Getting to Better Health: CONNECTing Care and Community,’ on Wednesday, April 29, at the Center for Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences on Quinnipiac University’s North Haven Campus.
Elizabeth Bradley, a professor at the Yale School of Public Health, will be the keynote speaker at the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut forum, “Getting to Better Health: CONNECTing Care and Community,” from 9 a.m. to noon on Wednesday, April 29, in the auditorium at the Center for Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences on the North Haven Campus of Quinnipiac University, 370 Bassett Road. Registration is from 8-9 a.m.
The forum will address how the health reform agenda is focused on achieving access to quality care to improve health, but evidence shows that social and economic factors, including housing, employment and healthy food options, have a much greater impact on health than clinical care. Participants will explore linking health care services and community-based resources to improve the health of all state residents.
Bradley, who also is director of the Yale Global Health Initiative, faculty director of the Yale Global Health Leadership Institute, and master at Branford College, has contributed important findings about organizational change and quality of care within the hospital, nursing home and hospice settings.
In addition, Bradley has several health system strengthening projects in international settings, including China, Ethiopia, Liberia, South Africa and the United Kingdom. She is the principal investigator for Yale on the Rwanda Human Resources for Health Program that was recognized by President Bill Clinton and the Clinton Global Initiative during their annual meeting in 2012. Bradley is also the recipient of a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grant that lead to the development of a novel framework of diffusion, dissemination and widespread take up of health innovations. Findings from this research can be integrated into future strategy development and large-scale implementation efforts undertaken by the Gates Foundation and the wider global health community.
Another featured speaker at the forum will be Jenney Samuelson, assistant director of Vermont’s Blueprint for Health, which was established by the State of Vermont to spearhead transformation to a system where all Vermonters have access to a continuum of seamless, effective and preventive health services.
Samuelson leads the Blueprint Expansion and Quality Improvement Program (EQuIP) which consists of a team of practice facilitators who assist over 100 adult, family and pediatric primary care practices to implement continuous quality improvement and patient centered medical home recognition. In addition, she oversees the Blueprint community-based self-management programs including statewide implementation of the Stanford Chronic Disease, Chronic Pain and Diabetes Self-Management Programs; the Vermont Tobacco Quit in Person Program; Wellness Recovery Action Planning (WRAP); and the YMCAs Diabetes Prevention Program.
Over the past decade, Samuelson has administered diverse community and statewide public health programs including leading a four county health careers workforce development program, quality improvement with health systems to support tobacco cessation in primary care practices and directing the State of Vermont’s Lead Poisoning Prevention Program.
Bradley and Samuelson’s presentations will be followed by a panel discussion by local experts.
Tickets are $20 for the general public and free to all students. To register, please visit www.UniversalHealthCT.org. For more information, write to [email protected].
Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut strives to serve as a catalyst that engages residents and communities in shaping a health system that provides universal access to quality health care and promotes health in Connecticut.