I recently got my Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt certification last month, April 2018, from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) through an online course offered by TUM on the edX platform. I admire how the certificate itself and the process of obtaining it was highly efficient, exemplifying the ideas of Lean and Six Sigma, reducing waste and reducing variation in quality improvement.

Lean and Six Sigma are two separate, but related philosophies in the quality improvement and management realm across a variety of different industries. …

Monticello, the former home of Thomas Jefferson, is a a popular destination to visit in Charlottesville, VA, both for tourists and locals. There are multi-use trails located near Monticello that are really fun to go for a bike ride on!

The main trail is the Saunders-Monticello trail with additional trails connecting to it. This part of the trail is great for those who just want to go on an easy bike ride, whether you’re new to mountain biking or are an experienced mountain biker who just wants an easy day or who wants to bring family or friends who are…

Bicycling is an enjoyable form of physical activity for many people. Most people (89.8%) in a recent survey have ridden a bicycle at one point in their life.(1) People ride bicycles for a variety of different reasons. A recent survey found that most survey respondents (76%) ride bicycles for fun and almost half (47%) also ride bicycles for exercise.(1) Many (22%) ride bicycles to ride with friends, family, or coworkers who ride bicycles as well to commute to work or school (27%).(1) …

Community driven population health improvement efforts that include a health equity lens as well as cultural competence in their programs and initiative work to address population health issues. Through a community driven, collaborative approach, essential stakeholders as well individual citizens provide valuable insight, data, research, ideas for ways to address the population health issues, funding, and gives the stakeholders more of a stake and ownership of the programs and initiative. When health equity is taken into account, programs and initiatives can be designed to provide additional help those who may be at a higher risk of a certain issue or…

One of the most valuable things I have learned while goal setting is the importance of breaking down larger, long term goals into smaller goals, such as specific goals for the week.

I found that when I don’t break down my big, long term goals into smaller ones, I just get too overwhelmed, thinking about the long term goal and how far away from it I am. For instance, when thinking of my long term fitness goals of where I want to be and how much I want to be able to do, such as my goal weight and wanting…

Cross sector collaborations can be a great way to address population health issues. There are myriad ways and types of cross sector collaborations as well as a variety of types of organizations involved in cross sector collaborations. Learning about different examples of cross-sector collaborations is a great way to get ideas for how your organization could partner with others to focus on improving a particular population health issue. Here is an example of a current cross sector collaborations.

Example

Engaging Youth in Building a Culture of Health — Collaboration between the National 4-H Council, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the national Cooperative Extension System, and Local Health Councils

The National 4-H Council is partnering with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the national Cooperative Extension System and local Health Councils in…

In the information age, organizations and departments within organizations often encounter the problem of data existing in silos, where one department or organization cannot easily access data that they need for a project from another department or organization. This can lead to inefficiencies, such as having to stop a project and use time and resources just to retrieve the data needed before the project could continue.

Keep in Mind the Goals for the Data Project

It is important to keep in mind the organization’s problem or goal which the data project needs to measure or address.(1) Focus on that first instead of seeing what data may already be available…