Keith Denny

Population Health in Canada: A Brief Critique

An internationally influential model of population health was developed in Canada in the 1990s, shifting the research agenda beyond health care to the social and economic determinants of health. While agreeing that health has important social determinants, the authors believe that this model has serious shortcomings; they critique the model by focusing on its hidden assumptions. Assumptions about how knowledge is produced and an implicit interest group perspective exclude the sociopolitical and class contexts that shape interest group power and citizen health. Overly rationalist assumptions about change understate the role of agency. The authors review the policy and practice implications of the Canadian population health model and point to alternative ways of viewing the determinants of health.

Taking Social Determinants of Health Seriously: A Health Services Perspective

This article seeks to outline why health systems and health services should play a more active role in addressing the social determinants of population health. Working from the premise that the supposed conflict between efficiency and equity is a bogus one and citing the example of potentially avoidable hospitalizations, the article suggests that there are pragmatic reasons for health services to engage in interventions that are informed by social determinants and health equity orientation.

Diagnostic coding of routinely collected data

I am writing with regard to the commentary by Nicholls and colleagues,[1][1] and the linked study by Tang and colleagues.[2][2] Both papers make important observations about the secondary-use value of routinely gathered clinical-administrative data for clinical, epidemiologic and health services