In Good Health

Once a year, we are incredibly fortunate to host nearly 600 individuals invested in the health of Coloradans at our Colorado Health Symposium. The topics we focus on reflect the landscape of health and the priorities we have as an organization. It’s our signature event, and a wonderful moment in time during the year to engage with others and express how we’re evolving as an organization.

Last year, we made some important changes to the event approach. For example, we:

• Incorporated new forms of creative expression to reinforce the power of community. I certainly won't forget that I got to rap on stage with Jonny 5 and Brer Rabbit from the Denver-based hip-hop group, Flobots.
• Introduced a widened view on

Some things never change, especially when it comes to parenting. My mama, for example, still checks in regularly on how things are going for me at work. She visits our office when she’s in town visiting from North Carolina. We occasionally travel together.  And, she reads each of my blog posts. It turns out she’s more than one of my biggest fans — she’s my fact checker, too.

In my last blog post (read it here if you missed it), I shared memories of going to the doctor as a child in rural North Carolina. Mama called me up after she read the post and offered a few corrections (minor, of course) that I wanted to share with you.

Our mission at the Colorado Health Foundation is to improve the health of Coloradans. It’s a bold goal – and one that can only be achieved through boldness in our everyday work and our everyday thinking.

Influencing public policy is one of the primary – and most effective – tools the Foundation uses to drive our mission forward. Our newly released white paper, Creating a Healthier Colorado, demonstrates how the Foundation leveraged resources to influence public policy and amplify the voice of Coloradans on important issues affecting their health.

Our unprecedented journey to creating and endowing a 501(c)(4) organization arose in 2011, when the Foundation began to transition its nonprofit tax status from public charity to private foundation. At

A question we often hear at the Foundation is: what exactly is patient engagement?

In 2012, Leonard Kish, a health IT strategy consultant, described patient engagement as “the Blockbuster Drug of the Century.”¹ Indeed, there is mounting evidence that activated and engaged patients have better health outcomes and care experiences, as well as significantly lower costs.

But it’s much more complex than a simple definition. By way of recent work in this important area, we’ve come to understand that patient portals can be a key tool to encouraging patient engagement.

At health clinics, the use of patient portals represents an increasingly significant innovation in support of patient engagement, patient‐centered care and effective use of health care services. They are