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Other Pioneers Who Shaped Population Health: Edington, Iverson, and Vickery/Lynch
- Miranda Marchant
- Oct 1
- 3 min read
Updated: Oct 2
When we talk about value-based care today, it’s easy to focus on recent policy changes or the
latest technology platforms. But the roots of this transformation go back decades, to pioneers
who were asking a different set of questions: What drives health outcomes? How do we keep
people well? And how do we engage organizations, clinicians, and patients in that journey?
Two leaders stand out for their early contributions: Dr. Dee Edington, and Prof. Don Iverson.
Each approached the problem from a different angle, but together they created much of the
foundation for what we now call population health management—and by extension, the
strategies that enable value-based care.
Dee Edington: The Business Case for Health
Dr. Dee Edington spent his career at the University of Michigan, where he founded the Health Management Research Center in 1978. His research focused on how employee health, organizational culture, and workplace environments affect both costs and productivity.
Edington’s breakthrough was showing that health is not just a personal issue but an economic
strategy. In his book Zero Trends: Health as an Economic Strategy, he argued that keeping risk
factors at or near zero isn’t only good for individuals—it’s good for business.
Focus: Workplace wellness, risk reduction, and culture change
Legacy: Employers became central players in population health, investing in prevention
and workforce well-being
Don Iverson: Bridging Public Health and Clinical Practice
Prof. Don Iverson worked across academia, government, and cancer prevention organizations.
His emphasis was on behavior change and prevention, particularly in the context of cancer and
chronic disease.
Iverson believed that clinicians needed to play a direct role in addressing lifestyle risks like
smoking, diet, and physical inactivity. He helped develop curricula for family medicine residents
that integrated health promotion into everyday care, and he directed large-scale prevention
research networks in Canada.
Focus: Health promotion, clinician education, cancer prevention
Legacy: Integrated prevention into clinical training and policy, making behavior change a
core responsibility of healthcare
Drs. Vickery and Lynch: Empowering Patients Through Demand Management
Dr. Don Vickery, a Harvard-trained physician, took yet another path. He believed that patients
themselves had enormous untapped power in shaping their health outcomes.
He co-authored the bestselling Take Care of Yourself series, which gave patients decision charts
and tools to manage common symptoms at home. With Dr. Wendy Lynch, he coined the term
“demand management”—a strategy for helping patients make appropriate choices about when
to seek care and when self-care was sufficient.
Focus: Self-care, demand management, consumer empowerment
Legacy: Anticipated today’s telehealth triage, shared decision-making, and digital self-
care tools
Comparing the Four
Though they worked in different arenas, Edington, Iverson, Vickery, and Lynch shared a common conviction: healthcare had to move upstream.
Edington targeted organizations and workplaces.
Iverson targeted clinicians and public health systems.
Vickery and Lynch targeted patients and consumers directly.
Together, they created a multi-dimensional approach that looks strikingly similar to today’s value-based care:
Prevention and risk reduction (Edington, Iverson)
Integration of behavioral health into clinical practice (Iverson)
Patient engagement and appropriate utilization (Vickery, Lynch)
Why Their Work Still Matters
Value-based care models like ACOs, bundled payments, and oncology care models depend on
population health strategies to succeed. And population health, in turn, rests on the insights
pioneered by these leaders:
Health as an organizational and economic priority (Edington)
Prevention as a clinical responsibility (Iverson)
Empowered patients making informed decisions (Vickery and Lynch)
Their collective work reminds us that value-based care isn’t just about new contracts or payment structures. It’s about rethinking the roles of employers, clinicians, and patients in creating healthier populations.
✅ In summary: Edington built the business case, Iverson built the clinical and policy bridge,
and Vickery/Lynch built the consumer empowerment tools. Together, they gave us the blueprint
for modern population health and set the stage for value-based care.
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