Colorado Health Institute Celebrates 10th Anniversary

The Colorado Health Institute (CHI) is marking its 10th anniversary with the publication of a photo book titled “Colorado: A Picture of Health.”

The book shows Coloradans on the front lines of health care - providers, patients, educators, students, volunteers and community health advocates. It covers the state from Montrose to Las Animas, from inner city Denver to the San Luis Valley. And it depicts all ages, from a minutes-old baby to seniors working to stay healthy and vibrant.

Here are some snapshots:

Midwife Shauna Jones welcoming Xavier John Clayton Waller into the world. Victoria Duncan, 32 and a single mom, facing cancer with courage and the support of her visiting nurses. Lee Walters, retired from restaurants but not from feeding people. Dr. Bethany Kolb, an accountant-turned-physician in the San Luis Valley, one answer to the question of who will care for rural Coloradans. Navy veterans Park and Gladys Beatty, married 66 years and living at a Colorado State Veterans Nursing Home, their service honored by creative and compassionate caregivers. First-grader Grace Gardner experiencing the summery taste of a tomato picked fresh from the community garden in Las Animas.

“This book is a gift back to the community for its support of CHI over the past 10 years,” said Michele Lueck, CHI’s president and CEO.

“For those of us who research, analyze and strategize about how best to deliver health care, it’s all too easy to forget that our policies and decisions impact our fellow Coloradans, all five million-plus of us. This tribute to our state’s health serves as a reminder of those we ultimately serve.”

CHI was founded in 2002 to address a statewide need for sound health policy data and evidence-based analysis.  A feasibility study identified the needs that CHI was created to address, particularly a demand for independent and impartial health care information to support sound policy decision-making.

A Memorandum of Understanding between three hospital conversion foundations – The Colorado Trust, Caring for Colorado Foundation and Rose Community Foundation – established CHI as a nonprofit corporation and provided initial funding. CHI continues to be funded by those three foundations as well as The Colorado Health Foundation.

Today, CHI is a trusted source of health care data, information, evidence and analysis for a wide range of Coloradans, including policymakers on the local, county, regional and state levels, policy and advocacy groups, businesses and organizations providing health care, public and private health care payers, educators, journalists and interested  citizens.

Our mission is to help make Colorado – and all Coloradans – healthier.

Michele Lueck, president and CEO, is available to discuss the book as well as CHI in general as it reaches the 10-year mark. To arrange an interview, or to request a hard copy of the book, please contact Deborah Goeken at (720) 382-7094 or goekend@coloradohealthinstutute.org.

CHI is a trusted source of independent and objective health information, data and analysis for the state's health care leaders. CHI, celebrating its tenth anniversary in 2012, is funded by the Caring for Colorado Foundation, Rose Community Foundation, The Colorado Trust and The Colorado Health Foundation.