The Blog

*Deadline to submit a proposal is Sunday, May 22, 2022 at 5:00 p.m.

It’s Time Texas and the University of Texas System are now accepting proposals for the 2022 Healthier Texas Summit, occurring October 20-21, 2022. This year’s in-person event will take place at the AT&T Hotel and Conference Center in Austin, Texas, with the theme: “Uniting to Transform Health in Texas: Increasing Access Through Cross-Sector Partnership.”

We are so excited to be back in-person! During this premier community and population health conference, Texas’ thought leaders and health champions gather to connect, share innovative ideas and effective practices, and build cross-sector relationships that are key to building a healthier Texas. The Healthier Texas Summit offers informative sessions, discussions, and interactive workshops with continuing education credits available for numerous professions.

Each year, content tracks are chosen so that we can truly focus our presentations and efforts on bettering health outcomes across Texas. We want to present the best of the best, most updated content and data to our participants. Here are the content tracks that have been chosen. Your proposal should fall underneath one of these six topic areas.

To learn more about the details and apply for the Healthier Texas Summit: Call for Proposals, please click here.

Content Tracks: 

Addressing Social Factors for Better Health Outcomes

To improve health outcomes, health care system innovators are experimenting with strategies to address the social and environmental factors impacting their patients’ health. These strategies often include partnering with and integrating the work of professionals who specialize in addressing non-healthcare factors, including housing, legal issues, parenting support, healthy behaviors, and food insecurity. Sessions in this track will share promising practices and lessons learned for linking or integrating health care and non-health care services.

Advancing Racial Equity

Every person should have the opportunity to achieve optimal health, yet good health is not distributed evenly across populations. To achieve racial equity, we need to address racism as a public health issue and examine our own implicit biases as leaders and practitioners. System changes include examining and refreshing policies and practices of agencies and institutions to directly address health disparities. This track will focus on creating institutional and systemic change, including strategies for identifying and addressing racism and implicit biases. Session presenters will share tools, processes, assessment strategies, and lessons learned.

Advancing Quality Primary Care Through Innovative Strategies

Primary care organizations are central to quality healthcare delivery. It is often a patient’s first point of entry to care that provides greater access to healthcare services, preventative care, management of chronic illnesses, and coordination of care. During the pandemic and beyond, primary care has evolved or even transformed to meet the needs of the population in innovative ways. Sessions in this track will share new strategies that address complex challenges of effective healthcare delivery, advancing the quality of primary care overall.

Effective Health Communication

Health communication plays an important role not just in disseminating health information, but also in influencing behaviors, supporting individuals’ desires to live healthier, improving communications between practitioners and the public, and facilitating collaboration. Sessions in this track will share key communication strategies that have demonstrated impact in health improvement at the individual, community, and institutional level.

Fostering Health Where Texans Live, Work, and Play

Healthier Institutions support healthier people; this is especially true of the spaces in which we spend so much of our lives. Creating deep and lasting health improvements in these settings requires a systemic approach that empowers individuals to become change agents for their health and the health of others. Sessions in this track will focus on improving health within institutions like schools, workplaces, and places of worship, through partnerships with organizations outside of the target institution.

Harnessing Data

Sound public health investments and successful collaborations require effective systems for collecting, sharing, and utilizing data and information. The effective use of data directly influences equity and assessing improvements in health equity requires the ability to disaggregate data (I.e., look at data by subpopulations, such as racial/ethnic groups). Inability to collect, share, or utilize data prevents the strategic and inventive use of data for the benefit of Texans and waste valuable resources. This track includes sessions focused on building capacity to collect and share data within all efforts toward health improvement.

Apply today to speak at the 2022 Healthier Texas Summit! Applications close Sunday, May 22, 2022 at 5:00 p.m. (CST).

This project has been funded at least in part with Federal funds from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The contents of this publication do not necessarily reflect the view or policies of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.

Date Posted: 5/6/22