Aligning Policy, Investment, and Practice to Improve Prevention in the Southeast United States.

Abstract

This article advances a set of actionable recommendations informed by the Prevention and Treatment of Chronic Disease in the Southeast Symposium hosted April 30, 2025, at Emory University. Key strategies include expanding team-based care that integrates community health workers, behavioral health specialists, and social services into primary care; realigning financial incentives to reward prevention; and making evidence-based lifestyle and behavioral interventions standard components of care. Prevention must also be grounded in community-rooted strategies that rebuild trust, improve access in underserved areas, and address social determinants of health. Technology, including data analytics, remote monitoring, and artificial intelligence-enabled decision support, should be deployed to strengthen risk stratification, outreach, and care coordination, with equity and accountability as nonnegotiable requirements. Together, these recommendations define a practical, scalable road map for transforming prevention from a peripheral activity into a central organizing principle of the health system. Policy makers, payers, health systems, employers, and funders must act within defined time horizons to align incentives, scale proven models, and institutionalize prevention as a core function of care delivery in the Southeast United States.