Pritpal S Tamber advises think tanks, foundations and government agencies – especially those in health – on the role and value of community power. He is the former Physician Editor of TEDMED, TED’s former dedicated health event, and since 2013 has been exploring innovation that is ‘community-oriented’ – sensitive to... Read more
Pritpal S Tamber advises think tanks, foundations and government agencies – especially those in health – on the role and value of community power.
He is the former Physician Editor of TEDMED, TED’s former dedicated health event, and since 2013 has been exploring innovation that is ‘community-oriented’ – sensitive to people’s contexts and priorities, and mindful of protecting and building social capital and cohesion. His numerous projects have brought him to the importance of community power, especially in the pursuit of health equity.
His research and writing has featured in top medical journals, such as the New England Journal of Medicine and Health Affairs, and has unveiled the link between public policies, social narratives and population health, the infrastructure that creates and sustains social narratives, the role of voting in the pursuit of health equity, and the pathways between community power and health equity.
His work has also encouraged an influential think tank in the UK (where he is from) to advocate for community power in local governance structures, which would require a radically a new relationship between people and the state.
Dr Tamber’s work encourages a radical rethink of what it means to improve health that takes in the ‘social determinants of health’ and drives deeper into the root causes of poor health – and what policymakers, practitioners and researchers can do about them.
The growing understanding that health is largely determined by social conditions has led to strategies in which community-based organizations (CBOs) address individual’s ‘social needs’. Important though this is, these partnerships often leave significant potential untapped. Dr Tamber illustrates how deeper relationships between healthcare and CBOs can impact population health.
The growing interest in communities having a greater say is not always aligned with the empirical evidence. Dr Tamber presents this evidence and explores what it means for your institution’s way of working, including what you need to measure to understand if it’s working.
Innovation in health is typically led by new technologies, not a deep analysis of the challenges to be overcome. Such as analysis would reveal that many people and communities endure poor health as they don’t have the agency or power to change their circumstances. Dr Tamber illustrates why organizations in...