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Show Preface Utah's Health: An Annual Review is compiled and edited by University of Utah undergraduate and graduate students. Its purpose is to provide readers with current and pertinent information and data regarding health and health care in Utah as compared to the nation, as well as to generate interest in and to facilitate discussion of health-related topics. Given the wide variety of topics, Utah's Health contributes to a profile of public health in the state-public health basically referring to the health of the public. The journal has four main sections: Articles, Data, Special Topics, and the Directory. Articles are contributed by administrators, educators, policy makers, practitioners, researchers, scholars, and students. This edition contains articles pertaining to access for the homeless, AIDS, antitrust issues, health care performance measurements (report cards), hospital discharge data, and hospital mergers. Data has four subsections: Demographics; Health Status; Risk Factors; Health Care Costs, Access and Quality. A narrative accompanies the data to point out important trends in Utah and to provide guidance in interpretation. The data section also furnishes references indicating more detailed sources including secondary sources readily available to the general public. Special Topics provides readers with basic information regarding various health care topics and issues that have arisen since the publication of the previous year's journal. The Directory provides a listing of various health care related agencies in Utah. Its intention is not to be exhaustive but rather to provide readers with the means to further understand particular issues or problems through contact with agencies concerned with those issues or problems. The ongoing mission of Utah's Health: An Annual Review is to continue establishing its role informing interested Utahns and others about the status of health and health care in Utah. It is our desire that Utah's Health will help the reader to comprehend these issues, particularly since health care and health care reform is now one of our nation's most critical issues for it citizens, health care professionals, and the leaders in business and government as we move into the 21st century. |
