Robert William Prasaad Steiner, MD, MPH, PhD, FAAFP, DABPM
University of Louisville School of Public Health and Information Sciences
Job Title: Professor, Health Management and Systems Sciences
Member of KHC for: 10 years
KHC Committee Participation: Measurement Workgroup
Through his work at UofL, Robert teaches MPH and PhD students.
What are you currently working on that you are most excited about? How do you think it will drive improvements to health and healthcare in the community?
Health is more than being free from disease. There are social and cultural aspects of health that include dimensions of well-being. Health is a resource to enable people to participate in normal social roles within a context of relationships with family, friends, neighbors and society. Good health may enable a better quality of life.
Improving health t is one of the three main priorities of the Triple Aim. What are the best strategies for improving health in our community?
Improving health means that a society must attend to factors other than diseases and negativity. The biomedical model is about bodies and parts, practitioners of the bio-psycho-social model care for patients in the context of family, and population health proposes a socio-ecologic model to foster networks of relationships as resources to remodel the very fabric of society.
Why do you and your organization belong to the KHC? What do you find most valuable as a member?
KHC represents a fractal of the stakeholders of our local health care systems. Discussions among members provide opportunities for mutual understanding and means to benefit communities. Including new metrics, such as quality of life assessments and life satisfaction ratings – at homes, work sites, schools, and recreational sites – will provide new perspectives to favor positive health.
How do you see the KHC evolving in the future?
Less attention to the payment models for medical care, and more attention to the basic social needs of people, like food, housing, education, qualities of relationships, etc.
What is your favorite quote?
“The dream of reason did not take power into account.” -Opening line to Paul Starr’s classic text, The Social Transformation of American Medicine
What are you passionate about?
I love to learn. There is a humbling quality to learning. All dimensions within the microcosm and macrocosm, including form, formless, and inconceivable, are within our precious human experience. I experience these qualities as beauty and awe.
