Health Impact Assessment in the U.S.: Bridging research and policy to address the determinants of health and health disparities

Public health research continues to shed light on the broad range of social, economic, and environmental decisions that drive health and health disparities, yet many of these decisions are made in sectors far outside the traditional scope of public health, such as transportation, urban planning, agriculture, and energy. Health impact assessment (HIA) has shown promise as a tool to bridge the gap between public health research and the policy process by assessing the health risks and benefits and providing practical recommendations to minimize unintended harms and maximize the benefits of new projects, policies, and programs. We will start with a brief introduction to the field of health impact assessment and an introduction to the Health Impact Project, a new collaboration of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Pew Charitable Trusts created to promote and support HIA practice in the U.S. The talk will then present a series of case examples from work by the Health Impact Project and its grantees addressing a range of topics including transportation and rail projects and policies, agricultural policies, zoning and growth plans, and natural resource and energy projects. We will discuss the outcomes of HIAs completed to date and present lessons learned gleaned from the work of our demonstration grantees. Experience to date demonstrates that the participatory strategies and multi-stakeholder engagement commonly involved in an HIA can provide a powerful voice to health, health disparities, and the needs of vulnerable populations across a broad range of public decision-making in non-health sectors.