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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
Robert L. Phillips, MD, MSPH, Policy Studies in Family Practice and Primary Care, The Robert Graham Center, 1350 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Ste. 950, Washington, DC 20036, 202-986-5708, bphillips@aafp.org and Fitzhugh Mullan, MD, Health Affairs, 7500 Old Georgetown Rd., Bethesda, MD 20814.
Community definition is an important point of departure for community health work in general and COPC in particular. Yet community definitions are often non-specific relying on geopolitical boundaries or local presumptions about patient populations. Vague definitions are an impediment to the precise application of socio-demographic or health status data to community health problems or to targeted community organizing. This presentation describes a technique called “geographic retrofitting” that has proved useful in establishing a rigorous definition of a practice’s community based on current patterns of users. It also demonstrates how this approach used in conjunction with geographic information systems software facilitates much more powerful capabilities in community characterization and intervention.
Learning Objectives:
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.