Our Focus Areas

Uncovering What Works

The County Health Rankings & Roadmaps program creates solutions that make it easier for people to be healthy in their own communities, focusing on specific factors that we know affect health, such as education, income and behaviors. Our Public Health Law Research program conducts legal research to separate the effective laws and policies from ineffective or harmful ones. And we invest in Public Health Services and Systems Research--uncovering best practices in organizing, staffing, financing and managing public health departments to help them make best use of scarce resources.

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Our Focus Areas

Advancing Smarter Laws and Policies

We support advocacy for policies that improve health like smoke-free air laws. We connect communities to the legal support and expertise they need to make informed decisions. And we help policymakers assess the health pros and cons of policies in a wide range of sectors, beyond health and health care.

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Our Focus Areas

Strengthening Public Health Departments

We’re also focused on helping public health departments continually improve their performance through accreditation and other efforts so they can help the people they serve be healthier.

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Most Requested

Government Shutdown: How Might It Affect Public Health Services?

As the budget debate on Capitol Hill continues, NewPublicHealth spoke with the Department of Health and Human Services to get a rundown on a...

A Giant Step Toward a Culture of Health

In the months ahead, tens of millions of Americans will discover new and affordable options for obtaining health insurance, many of them for...

Data Challenge

RWJF announced winners to the AF4Q Games to Generate Data Challenge and the Hospital Price Transparency challenge at Health 2.0's fall confe...

Health Insurance Marketplaces Open Today

Today the consumer health insurance marketplaces, also known as exchanges, open in every state that will let consumers purchase coverage tha...

Vulnerable Populations

We create new opportunities for better health by investing in health where it starts—in our homes, schools, and jobs.

Building Resilience

A growing network of leaders in research, policy and practice are leading the way in preventing adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and mit...

Pioneer Pitch Day

Pioneer Pitch Day is an opportunity for innovators with ideas for transforming health and health care to pitch their ideas live and in perso...

Alcohol and Life Expectancy: Unraveling the Mystery of Why Nondrinkers Have Higher Risk of Premature Death

Patrick M. Krueger recently co-authored a study that examines the characteristics and mortality risks of nondrinker subgroups to explain why...

Quality Field Notes: Appropriate ED Use

Key lessons learned by regional alliances of providers, patients, and payers in AF4Q communities as they work to reduce inappropriate emerge...

Adverse Childhood Experiences: The Truth About ACEs

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is working to increase awareness and understanding of the impact of ACEs and the need to develop effectiv...

‘Adverse Childhood Experiences’: Early Life Events that Can Damage our Adult Health

RWJF.org recently pulled together a collection of resources on “adverse childhood experiences”—how common they are and what they can mean fo...

Tootsie’s Story: Medical Error Takes a Life

RWJF Nurse Faculty Scholar Jennifer Bellot writes about losing her grandmother to complications from a medical error.