# Milbank Memorial Fund: Using evidence to improve population health\.

> The Fund works to improve the health of populations by connecting leaders and decision makers with the best available evidence and experience\.

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## Pages
- [Milbank Fellows Program](https://www.milbank.org/leadership-programs/milbank-fellows-program/): The Milbank Fellows Program is a leadership program for executive branch and senior legislative state government leaders committed to improving population health\.
- [Emerging Leaders Program](https://www.milbank.org/leadership-programs/emerging-leaders-program/): The Emerging Leaders Program seeks to develop practical, hands\-on leadership skills in future senior executive and legislative officials\. 
- [MLSN\-Only Virtual Briefings](https://www.milbank.org/state-networks/state-leadership-network/virtual-briefings/)
- [State Health Policy Leadership](https://www.milbank.org/focus-areas/state-health-policy-leadership/): The Milbank Memorial Fund aims to inform and inspire current and future state health policy leaders to enhance their effectiveness\.
- [About the Quarterly](https://www.milbank.org/quarterly/about/)

## Blog Posts
- [A Framework for Evaluating Primary Care Investment](https://www.milbank.org/2026/03/a-framework-for-evaluating-primary-care-investment/)
- [Addressing Unmet Health Care Needs Through Insurance Benefit Design: Challenges and Opportunities](https://www.milbank.org/2026/03/addressing-unmet-health-care-needs-through-insurance-benefit-design-challenges-and-opportunities/): Public programs have increasingly sought to address health\-related social needs that create barriers to care and health disparities and drive health care costs\. For instance, several state Medicaid programs now cover medically tailored meals, housing supports, and non\-emergency transportation through managed care and demonstration waivers\. 
- [Integrating State Data to Promote Evidence\-Based Policy: The New Jersey Integrated Population Health Data \(iPHD\) Project](https://www.milbank.org/2026/03/integrating-state-data-to-promote-evidence-based-policy-the-new-jersey-integrated-population-health-data-iphd-project/): Which pregnant women are most likely to rely on emergency department care, and how can they be better served? How did COVID\-19 affect birth outcomes, and what would support improvements in future infectious disease outbreaks? These and other questions can be answered with existing state data when these data are integrated\.
- [Lessons Rising from the Ruins of a Smallpox Hospital](https://www.milbank.org/2026/03/lessons-rising-from-the-ruins-of-a-smallpox-hospital/)
- [Leveraging Insurer\-Provided Health Care Price Data to Inform State Policy Solutions](https://www.milbank.org/2026/03/leveraging-insurer-provided-health-care-price-data-to-inform-state-policy-solutions/): Driven mainly by high and variable prices, United States’ health care spending is among the highest in the world\. Yet, higher prices make health care less affordable and are often not linked to higher quality\.

## News Articles
- [From Suicide Prevention to ED Boarding: Applying Adaptive Leadership with Morissa Henn of the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services](https://www.milbank.org/news/suicide-prevention-to-ed-boarding-applying-adaptive-leadership-with-morissa-henn-of-the-new-hampshire-department-of-health-and-human-services/): Last month, Milbank National Director for Population Health Morgan McDonald, MD, and Morissa Henn, DrPH, Deputy Commissioner, New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services, met to discuss how Henn has applied the principles of adaptive leadership to her work\. 
- [New RSG Projects for 2017: What’s on the Minds of State Health Policymakers?](https://www.milbank.org/news/new-rsg-projects-2017-whats-minds-state-health-policymakers/)
- [Achieving Paid Family Leave in Minnesota: A Q\&A with Senator Alice Mann and Former Representative Ruth Richardson ](https://www.milbank.org/news/achieving-paid-family-leave-in-minnesota-a-qa-with-senator-alice-mann-and-former-representative-ruth-richardson/): In January, Minnesota launched its paid family and medical leave program, making it one of 13 states with a statewide paid leave program in place or in process\. For this Q\&A, Milbank’s National Director for Population Health, Morgan McDonald, MD, talked with the legislation’s sponsors, Former Rep\. Ruth Richardson, an alumna of the Emerging Leaders Program, and Sen\. Alice Mann, MD, an alumna of the Milbank Fellows Program, about their motivations and approach to passing the bill\. Both interviewees highlighted how their ongoing communication with each other and with the members of a large and diverse coalition — as well as their use of both storytelling and data — led to this investment in Minnesota’s families and businesses\. \(Watch a video of the interview at right\.\)
- [Milbank Submits Public Comment on Proposed Changes to Graduate and Professional Degree Definitions](https://www.milbank.org/news/milbank-submits-public-comment-on-proposed-changes-to-graduate-and-professional-degree-definitions/): On March 2, 2026, The Milbank Memorial Fund submitted a public comment in response to the U\.S\. Department of Education's proposal to amend the § 685\.102 Degree Definitions to include new definitions of graduate student and professional student\. 
- [Honoring Dr\. William H\. Foege](https://www.milbank.org/news/honoring-dr-william-h-foege/)

## Publications
- [Revitalizing Primary Care: Health Plan of San Mateo’s Investment Strategy](https://www.milbank.org/publications/revitalizing-primary-care-health-plan-of-san-mateos-investment-strategy/)
- [State Action to Improve Maternal \& Child Health with the Rural Health Transformation Program: Virtual Convening of Milbank State Leadership Network Recap](https://www.milbank.org/publications/state-action-to-improve-maternal-child-health-with-the-rural-health-transformation-program-virtual-convening-of-milbank-state-leadership-network-recap/)
- [A Roadmap for Building and Implementing a Comprehensive State Graduate Medical Education Strategy: Actionable Steps to Align Investments with Workforce Needs](https://www.milbank.org/publications/a-roadmap-for-building-and-implementing-a-comprehensive-state-graduate-medical-education-strategy-actionable-steps-to-align-investments-with-workforce-needs/): This evidence\-based framework organizes a GME growth strategy into five iterative stages: exploration, strategy development, strategy design, technical assistance, and optimization\. 
- [Investing in Primary Care: The Missing Strategy in America’s Fight Against Chronic Disease](https://www.milbank.org/publications/investing-in-primary-care-the-missing-strategy-in-americas-fight-against-chronic-disease/): This analysis shows the tangible benefits of primary care access for people with chronic disease, including substantially lower hospitalization rates and health care spending\. 
- [The Path to Coordinated Federal Leadership to Strengthen Primary Health Care](https://www.milbank.org/publications/the-path-to-coordinated-federal-leadership-to-strengthen-primary-health-care/): A call for congressional support to establish an Office of Primary Care at the federal level to coordinate existing primary care services and provide oversight to initiatives focused on workforce training, behavioral health integration, clinical comprehensiveness, and payment\. 

## Quarterly Volumes
- [Volume 103](https://www.milbank.org/quarterly-volume/volume-103/)
- [Volume 102](https://www.milbank.org/quarterly-volume/volume-102/)
- [Volume 101](https://www.milbank.org/quarterly-volume/volume-101/)
- [Volume 100](https://www.milbank.org/quarterly-volume/volume-100/)
- [Volume 99](https://www.milbank.org/quarterly-volume/volume-99/)

## Quarterly Issues
- [March 2026](https://www.milbank.org/quarterly/issues/march-2026/)
- [December 2025](https://www.milbank.org/quarterly/issues/december-2025/)
- [September 2025](https://www.milbank.org/quarterly/issues/september-2025/)
- [Mental Health and Substance Use Challenges](https://www.milbank.org/quarterly/issues/mental-health-and-substance-use-challenges-facing-the-united-states-what-can-state-policymakers-do/)
- [June 2025](https://www.milbank.org/quarterly/issues/june-2025/)

## Quarterly Articles
- [How Are You Doing… Really? A Review of Whole Person Health Assessments](https://www.milbank.org/quarterly/articles/how-are-you-doing-really-a-review-of-whole-person-health-assessments/): To provide a foundation for assessing whole person health and support further instrument development, this review summarizes past work on assessing person\-reported whole health, articulates conceptual domains encompassing whole health, and identifies lessons from existing instruments, including considerations for administration\.
- [Coming to Terms with MAHA](https://www.milbank.org/quarterly/articles/coming-to-terms-with-maha/): The “Make America Healthy Again” \(MAHA\) movement has garnered polarized reactions, with praise among proponents for its core elements while also attracting its fair share of criticism\. To be sure, there is much to be concerned about the movement, not the least of which is its disregard for scientific evidence that fails to align with its ideology about disease, wellness, and vaccination\. 
- [A Scoping Review of Certified Nurse\-Midwife and Certified Midwife Care in the United States: Assessing Outcomes Across Six Patient Care Domains](https://www.milbank.org/quarterly/articles/a-scoping-review-of-certified-nurse-midwife-and-certified-midwife-care-in-the-united-states-assessing-outcomes-across-six-patient-care-domains/): The alarming rise in US maternal mortality and disparities in perinatal, sexual, and reproductive health outcomes underscores the urgent need for effective, equitable, and evidence\-based models of care\. Care provided by certified nurse\-midwives \(CNMs\) and certified midwives \(CMs\) has played a critical role in addressing these disparities, yet a comprehensive synthesis of its impact across health care quality domains is lacking\.
- [How Corruption Influences Population Health](https://www.milbank.org/quarterly/articles/how-corruption-influences-population-health/): While public health research has examined the macro\-level and structural determinants of health, the link between corruption and population health remains underexplored\.
- [Health and the Right to Universal Basic Neighborhoods](https://www.milbank.org/quarterly/articles/health-and-the-right-to-universal-basic-neighborhoods/): The United States lags far behind other comparable nations on health indicators\. To promote population health in cities, we argue for the right to Universal Basic Neighborhoods \(UBN\)\.

## Quarterly Opinions
- [Learning to Love the Data Quality Act](https://www.milbank.org/quarterly/opinions/learning-to-love-the-data-quality-act/): At the very end of the Clinton Administration, Republican Congresswoman JoAnne Emerson inserted a two\-paragraph provision into the 2001 Treasury and General Government Appropriations Act\. These paragraphs would become known as the Data Quality Act \(as well as the Information Quality Act\) and its passage represented a major victory for industries – including the tobacco and chemical industries – regulated by the federal government\.

- [Manipulating Science, Manipulating Us](https://www.milbank.org/quarterly/opinions/manipulating-science-manipulating-us/): Four decades ago, I and Gerald Markowitz published an article in the American Journal of Public Health that attracted a fair amount of attention\. The article was about the history of the introduction of tetraethyl lead into gasoline in the 1920s\.  The article detailed the controversy over putting lead, even then a known industrial poison and neurotoxin, into the gasoline that was powering the new automobile, particularly those that were produced by the General Motors Company\.
- [Affordability and Preventive Public Health Policy](https://www.milbank.org/quarterly/opinions/affordability-and-preventive-public-health-policy/): Affordability pressures increasingly shape health risk in the United States, influencing both the upstream conditions that sustain health and the downstream ability to access health promoting resources\. Financial stability is a key driver of health, affecting patterns of health, health care use, and the tradeoffs people must make among competing needs\. The economic policy landscape aimed at improving financial security for Americans is expansive, complex, and often difficult to organize, making it challenging to discuss how different policies influence financial resilience and population health\. We propose the Earn–Keep–Grow framework as a practical way to organize and guide discussion of these policies in population health research and policy decision\-making\.

- [Money for Nothing? Universal Basic Income as Health Policy](https://www.milbank.org/quarterly/opinions/money-for-nothing-universal-basic-income-as-health-policy/)
- [Why the US Must Measure Food Insecurity in Old Age](https://www.milbank.org/quarterly/opinions/why-the-us-must-measure-food-insecurity-in-old-age/): The number of older Americans who are food insecure is growing, yet a recent Trump administration decision to terminate data collection of the annual Food Security Supplement will make it impossible to fully track this growth\.

## Press Releases
- [New Study: Ultra\-Processed Food Manufacturers Are Applying Tobacco Industry Methods to Drive Overconsumption](https://www.milbank.org/quarterly/press-releases/new-study-ultra-processed-food-manufacturers-are-applying-tobacco-industry-methods-to-drive-overconsumption/)
- [New Index Tracks US State Progress on Promoting the Health and Well\-Being of Older Populations for the First Time](https://www.milbank.org/quarterly/press-releases/new-index-tracks-us-state-progress-on-promoting-the-health-and-well-being-of-older-populations-for-the-first-time/)
- [Health Policy Must\-Haves for the Biden Administration](https://www.milbank.org/quarterly/press-releases/health-policy-must-haves-for-the-biden-administration/): Building Back Better is a new series offering policy recommendations for the Biden administration throughout the transition period authored by members of the Quarterly’s Editorial Advisory Board\.
- [The Milbank Quarterly Announces New Editorial Advisory Board](https://www.milbank.org/quarterly/press-releases/the-milbank-quarterly-announces-new-editorial-advisory-board/)
- [State Policy Polarization May Be Driving Life Expectancy by State](https://www.milbank.org/quarterly/press-releases/state-policy-polarization-may-be-driving-life-expectancy-by-state/)

## Events
- [Webinar: The Engineering and Regulation of Ultraprocessed Foods](https://www.milbank.org/event/webinar-the-engineering-and-regulation-of-ultraprocessed-foods/): Join us for a Milbank Quarterly webinar  to discuss research on ultraprocessed foods \(UPFs\), lessons from tobacco prevention and control efforts, and steps to restrict UPFs in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program \(SNAP\)\.
- [2026 Health of US Primary Care Webinar: Primary Care—The Missing Strategy in America’s Fight Against Chronic Disease](https://www.milbank.org/event/2026-primary-care-scorecard-webinar-primary-care-the-missing-strategy-in-americas-fight-against-chronic-disease/)
- [Winning Public Trust Through Better Health Communication](https://www.milbank.org/event/winning-public-trust-through-better-health-communication/)
- [Milbank Quarterly Webinar: Opioid Settlement Funds — Policy Recommendations and Implementation Insights ](https://www.milbank.org/event/milbank-quarterly-webinar-opioid-settlement-funds-policy-recommendations-and-implementation-insights/)
- [Webinar: Informing State Action to Control Health Care Costs: Best Practices in Claims Data Analysis](https://www.milbank.org/event/webinar-informing-state-action-to-control-health-care-costs-best-practices-in-claims-data-analysis/): Join us for a webinar to explore how states can garner compelling data insights from their All\-Payers Claims Database \(APCD\) to inform health care affordability initiatives\. 

## Virtual Briefings
- [Rural Health Transformation Program and Maternal Child Health](https://www.milbank.org/virtual-briefing/rural-health-transformation-program-and-maternal-child-health/)
- [Rural Health Transformation Program](https://www.milbank.org/virtual-briefing/october-2025-rural-health-transformation-program/): The Milbank State Leadership Network hosted a virtual convening on October 14 and 15, 2025, 12:00\-1:30 pm ET, to discuss states plans for the new Rural Health Transformation \(RHT\) Program\.

- [State Strategies for Sustaining Community Health Workers](https://www.milbank.org/virtual-briefing/sustaining-state-strategies-for-community-health-workers/)
- [State Responses to Rising Prescription Costs](https://www.milbank.org/virtual-briefing/state-responses-to-rising-prescription-costs/)
- [State Legislative Action on Medicaid and Behavioral Health](https://www.milbank.org/virtual-briefing/milbank-state-leadership-network-exclusive-briefing-state-legislative-action-on-medicaid-and-behavioral-health/): The Milbank State Leadership Network and experts from the National Conference of State Legislatures \(NCSL\) met on  February 20, 2025, for a discussion on how states are approaching Medicaid and behavioral health policy during this legislative season\. 

## Tags
- [blog](https://www.milbank.org/tag/blog/)
- [Christopher Koller](https://www.milbank.org/tag/christopher-koller/)
- [Reforming States Group](https://www.milbank.org/tag/reforming-states-group/)
- [Center for Evidence\-based Policy](https://www.milbank.org/tag/center-for-evidence-based-policy/)
- [Multi\-State Collaborative](https://www.milbank.org/tag/multi-state-collaborative/)

## Focus Area
- [State Health Policy Leadership](https://www.milbank.org/focus-area/state-health-policy-leadership/)
- [Primary Care Transformation](https://www.milbank.org/focus-area/primary-care-transformation/)
- [Health Care Affordability](https://www.milbank.org/focus-area/health-care-affordability/)
- [Health of US Primary Care Scorecard](https://www.milbank.org/focus-area/health-us-primary-care-scorecard/)

## Publication Topic
- [Population Health](https://www.milbank.org/publication-topic/population-health/)
- [Peterson\-Milbank Program for Sustainable Health Care Costs](https://www.milbank.org/publication-topic/peterson-milbank/)
- [Medicaid](https://www.milbank.org/publication-topic/medicaid/)
- [Primary Care Investment](https://www.milbank.org/publication-topic/primary-care-investment/)
- [Health Equity](https://www.milbank.org/publication-topic/health-equity/)

## Quarterly Topic
- [Population Health](https://www.milbank.org/quarterly-topic/population-health/)
- [Health Equity](https://www.milbank.org/quarterly-topic/health-equity/)
- [Public Health](https://www.milbank.org/quarterly-topic/public-health/)
- [COVID\-19](https://www.milbank.org/quarterly-topic/covid-19/)
- [State Health Policy](https://www.milbank.org/quarterly-topic/state-health-policy/)

## Optional
- [Sitemap index](https://www.milbank.org/sitemap_index.xml)