‘We can build something better’

Public health can boast significant accomplishments over the past century — among them, life expectancy has risen, and suffering from myriad diseases has declined.

Yet, vast gaps persist, says Salma Abdalla, MBBS, MPH, DrPH, an assistant professor at WashU School of Public Health. “So, the question is, ‘Are we producing the right kind of evidence, in the right way, to actually move the needle on these gaps?’”

That, essentially, is the question at the center of the “Better Ways of Knowing” initiative — a multiyear effort to reimagine how public health knowledge is generated, communicated, and translated into action. The first of several gatherings of leading thinkers across multiple disciplines was hosted at WashU on March 16 and 17.

The initiative is being led by WashU Public Health’s Healthier Futures Lab — directed by Abdalla and co-directed by Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH, the Margaret C. Ryan Dean of the School of Public Health and the Eugene S. and Constance Kahn Distinguished Professor in Public Health. The WashU team is partnering with the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research (AHPSR), a global leader in community-engaged health policy, and is funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

During the March convening, several participants shared their thoughts on the event and the discussions it spurred. Their impressions are collected in this video.

“We believe that through convenings like this one and other efforts across the globe … we can build something better,” Abdalla said. “We can produce knowledge that is more vigorous, more responsive, and more consequential for the health of populations.”

The next “Better Ways of Knowing” convening will be in Washington, D.C., in October (date TBD). It will bring together policymakers and academics and will be cohosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a bipartisan, nonprofit policy research organization dedicated to advancing practical ideas to address the world’s biggest challenges.

— Elizabethe Holland Durando

(Video produced by Zachary Linhares/WashU Public Health)