Robert Lieberthal
Instructor
Jefferson School of Population Health
“What’s population health? What’s a school of population health? And how many schools of population health are there?” My inquisitor was Sara Teppema, staff fellow for health at the Society of Actuaries. After I answered her questions, she asked me to write a newsletter article for actuaries that would be informative about population health, the Jefferson School of Population Health, and how my background and research interests led me here. My article is forthcoming in the January 2011 issue of the Society of Actuaries’ Health Watch newsletter.
Writing the article was also a learning process for me thanks to my editor, Karin Swenson-Moore. She pointed out that actuaries are already working in population health. I agreed with her, and tried hard not to give the impression that I thought actuaries were not already doing work in population health. I have spoken to actuaries who are already using predictive modeling to determine who could benefit from disease management programs, but they cannot always publish their results (for an exception, click here). I have only seen a small slice of the actuarial world, so I know that I have a lot more to learn about how I can make population health relevant for actuaries.
I argued in the article that it is in actuaries’ interest to learn more about population health, but that is not the whole story. Part of my motivation at JSPH is personal. I am trying to figure out how I can best contribute to the world, specifically the health of different groups in our society. At JSPH, I have already collaborated with doctors, nurses, pharmacists, doctors of public health and PhDs in other population health disciplines, and research staff with a variety of backgrounds. I want to collaborate with actuaries, too. Conversely, I am offering myself up to be part of their collaborative efforts with academia.
I am enthusiastic about the possible good that actuaries can do as a part of population health efforts by using the skills they have already learned applied to a new set of problems. I hope that my quest may lead to productive collaborations that also make us all healthier.