1,953 articles
Health Catchment Area
Health catchment area (health service area): the geographic population a health facility or program serves, used as its denominator. Defined by utilisation, travel-time, fixed-radius, Voronoi, or 2SFCA gravity methods.
Health communication
Health communication: multidisciplinary field applying communication theory, evidence, and strategy to advance health and well-being; term first used by the ICA in 1975; spans provider-patient interaction, campaigns, health literacy, and social media.
Health Education England
Health Education England (HEE) was the NHS arm's-length body for workforce education, training and planning in England from 2013 until its abolition, when its functions transferred to NHS England on 1 April 2023.
Health effects of tobacco
Health effects of tobacco: diseases and deaths from tobacco use and secondhand smoke. Over 7 million deaths yearly, 7,000+ smoke chemicals, cancer, heart disease, COPD; 1964 Surgeon General report; quitting lowers risk.
Health Equity
Health equity: fair opportunity for all to attain full health, pursued by eliminating health disparities in which disadvantaged groups systematically fare worse; defined by Braveman and Whitehead, monitored by WHO and US frameworks.
Health Expenditures
Health expenditures: amounts spent by individuals, organizations, and nations on health care, also called health spending. Measured via SHA 2011 and WHO GHED (190+ countries since 2000); OECD average near USD 6,000 per capita in 2024, US highest at over USD 14,880.
Health Facilities
Health facilities are institutions providing medical or health-related services, from hospitals and laboratories to pharmacies and residential care homes (MeSH D006268). Coverage includes classification, WHO hospital roles, SARA/HHFA readiness assessment, and documented readiness gaps in low- and middle-income countries.
Health hazard
Health hazard: any agent or condition with the potential to cause illness, distinct from safety hazards causing injury. Covers hazard versus risk, hazard quotients, screening tools, EPA, NIOSH, and UKHSA assessment frameworks.
Health impact assessment
A health impact assessment (HIA) is a structured process, applied before a decision is made, that judges how a proposed policy, plan, or project could affect population health.
Health Inequities
Health inequities are avoidable, unjust differences in health across population groups, also called health disparities or health inequalities. They arise from social determinants such as income, housing, education, and discrimination, with a 33-year life expectancy gap between countries.
Health insurance
Health insurance: pooled coverage of medical costs via premiums, deductibles, copays, and coinsurance; also called UHC when universal. Covers market failures (adverse selection, moral hazard), history from Bismarck's 1880s Germany, and US ACA marketplace rules.
Health insurance in the United States
Health insurance in the United States: mixed employer-based, Medicare, Medicaid, and ACA marketplace system; 92% insured in 2024, no universal coverage, 18% of GDP spent on health care.
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act
HIPAA (P.L. 104-191, 1996), the US health privacy and portability law: PHI, Privacy and Security Rules, breach notification, OCR penalties, HITECH/Omnibus changes, and 2024-2025 rulemaking.
Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service
Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (건강보험심사평가원, HIRA), South Korea's quasi-governmental agency established in 2000 that reviews NHI claims, assesses care quality, manages drug reimbursement, and provides claims data on about 46 million patients yearly for research.
Health Literacy Questionnaire
The Health Literacy Questionnaire (HLQ) is a 44-item self-report survey measuring health literacy across nine dimensions, introduced in 2013 and used in over 100 countries.
Health maintenance organization
A health maintenance organization, or HMO, is a health insurance plan covering care from a network of contracted doctors, providing services for a fixed prepaid fee.
Health Planning
Health planning is the process by which governments and health authorities define a vision and organize resources to improve the equity, effectiveness, and efficiency of health systems.
Health policy
Health policy: government decisions on organizing, financing, and regulating health services, also known as universal health coverage (UHC) policy. Distinguished by WHO's primary health care approach, SDG target 3.8, Alma-Ata 1978 and Astana 2018 milestones, and OECD performance assessment frameworks.
Health Priorities
Health Priorities: preferentially rated health-related activities used in establishing health planning goals (MeSH D006292, entry term Priorities, Health). Covers priority setting in national health planning, criteria such as cost-effectiveness and equity, and ethics.
Health protection
Health protection: public health function safeguarding populations against external threats via government policy, regulation, and law; includes IHR, PHEIC alerts, emergency preparedness, and environmental and occupational risk control.
Health Protection Agency
Health Protection Agency (HPA), Maldives' national public health agency under the Ministry of Health, formed under the Public Health Protection Act; handles disease surveillance, immunization, IHR focal point duties, JEE 2024, NAPHS, and NHEROP emergency planning.
Health Sciences University
Health Sciences University (HSU), formerly AECC University College and the Anglo-European College of Chiropractic, is a specialist health sciences university in Bournemouth, London, and Reading, renamed in 2024, with clinics, NHS imaging partnerships, and a Solent-awarded PhD.
Health security
Health security: policy concept covering protection of populations from epidemics, disasters, and biological, chemical, and nuclear accidents; frameworks include the IHR, GHSA, and JEE; flagship journal Health Security (ISSN 2326-5094), renamed from Biosecurity and Bioterrorism in 2015.
Health Services
Health services: organized services for diagnosis, treatment, and maintenance of health (MeSH D006296, 1974). Covers service delivery sub-functions, access dimensions, history from Alma-Ata 1978, and OECD/WHO performance assessment.
Health Services Administration
Health services administration is the organization and management of people, institutions, and resources delivering health care, classified in health accounts as HC.7.1 governance and administration, with graduate education dating to 1934.
Health Services Research (concept)
Health services research (HSR) is a multidisciplinary field studying how social factors, financing systems, organizations, technologies, and behaviors affect access to, quality, and cost of health care.
Health services research (institution)
Health Services Research (HSR), bimonthly US journal founded 1966, official journal of the Association for Health Services Research, ISSN 0017-9124, covering healthcare delivery, quality, financing, and outcomes; NLM ID 0053006.
Health Status
Health status: the level of health of an individual, group, or population (MeSH D006304), assessed subjectively or objectively. Measured via self-rated health, indicators like mortality and morbidity, and instruments such as SF-36 and EQ-5D.
Health system
Health system: the organizations, institutions, resources and people whose primary purpose is to improve health. Covers WHO's six building blocks, Beveridge/Bismarck/NHI/out-of-pocket financing models, UHC gaps (4.6 billion under-covered), and cross-country performance controversies.
Health Workforce
Health workforce: the availability, supply, demand, distribution and utilization of health personnel (MeSH D006280; also health and care workforce). WHO estimated an 18 million health worker shortfall toward universal health coverage by 2030.