The Fund supports networks of state health policy decision makers to help identify, inspire, and inform policy leaders.
A bipartisan group of state health policymakers from both the executive and legislative branches who are focused on improving population health.
Networks of state officials, advocates, and others aiming to invest in and transform primary care.
A program dedicated to advancing state-based efforts to make health care more affordable for residents, employers, and states.
The Milbank Memorial Fund supports two state leadership programs for legislative and executive branch state government officials committed to improving population health.
A leadership development program for early and mid-career state government officials who are committed to improving the health of all people in their communities.
A leadership program for senior state government officials who are committed to improving population health.
The Fund focuses on creating an affordable health care system built on strong primary care and partnerships that improve health outcomes for all.
Improving state leaders’ ability to enact and implement evidence-based health policies.
Advancing policies that create a more prevention- and primary care-oriented health system.
Improving population health through policies that contain health care cost growth.
Our state health policy resources offer relevant data analysis and best practices.
The Fund publishes reports, issues briefs, and case studies on state health policy issues.
Short takes on health policy issues from Milbank staff and guest authors.
Insights from Milbank President Debra Lubar on state health policymaking.
Reported articles and Q&As on timely health policy issues, as well as foundation updates.
Milbank Memorial Fund and Milbank Quarterly webinars featuring state health policymakers and researchers.
Updates and expert contact information for reporters.
The Milbank Memorial Fund is a private foundation that works to improve population health and health equity.
The Future of Population Health (Volume 101)
Quarterly Article
Philip M. Alberti
Heather H. Pierce
Sep 2, 2026
Aug 19, 2026
Jun 29, 2026
Back to The Milbank Quarterly
Policy Points:
Though there is no definitive history of the “population health approach,”1 relevant methods and practice have been deployed for centuries. Although a common population health lexicon is still in development,2 in their seminal 2003 paper “What Is Population Health?,” Kindig and Stoddart define the “relatively new term” as “the health outcomes of a group of individuals, including the distribution of such outcomes within the group.”3
More recently, the Interdisciplinary Association for Population Health Science (IAPHS) has firmly placed health equity as a central focus of the field and on the development of a health-in-all-policies agenda to advance equitable health opportunity for all communities. IAPHS notes that population health involves:
an interdisciplinary and multi-method approach to producing knowledge about: population health levels & disparities; the intertwined & multi-level causes of health and disease, from genes, to behavior, to social and physical environments; the mechanisms through which health and health disparities are produced; and what policies and practices will improve population health and ameliorate health disparities.4
According to these definitions health care is but one of the “mechanisms” across many levels that contribute to population health, giving it a necessary yet insufficient role to play in developing (and being part of) the multisector and multilevel solutions that improve the health of populations generally and eliminate unjust, systematic, avoidable inequities in health between groups.
1. Szreter S. The population health approach in historical perspective. Am J Public Health. 2003;93(3):421-431. 2. Peek CJ, Westfall JM, Stange KC, et al. Shared language for shared work in population health. Ann Fam Med. 2021;19(5):450-457. https://doi.org/10.1370/afm.2708. 3. Kindig D, Stoddart G. What is population health? Am J Public Health. 2003;93(3):380-383. https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.93.3.380. 4. What is population health. Interdisciplinary Association for Population Health Science website. https://iaphs.org/what-ispopulation-health/. Accessed September 9, 2022.