What are Patient Populations?

Healthcare providers face a unique challenge in the United States in treating and serving the diverse and varied patient population of the United States, which includes 300 million individuals who vary greatly in subcultures, backgrounds, ethnicities, and pre-existing health conditions. 

Doctors, nurses, and pharmacists are constantly faced with the challenge of providing comprehensive yet customized care for those they serve. One effective way to gain an understanding of certain types of patients is to gather data on certain subsets of patients. This is where the concept of patient populations becomes useful.

What Are Patient Populations? 

A patient population is a categorization of patients in the healthcare world. Patient populations are determined using demographics like socioeconomic status, race and ethnicity, geographic location, or existing health conditions. 

Patient populations are useful for healthcare providers for a few reasons: 

Data and Analysis 

Understanding patient populations is useful for conducting studies and gathering information about certain demographics. Rather than trying to understand and treat a mass of patients within one system, patient populations help doctors gather useful information about specific demographics according to gender, age, weight, and specific medical conditions. The more clearly defined patient populations are, the more equipped doctors are to draw conclusions from their data analysis.

Developing Care Plans 

These demographics provide an objective foundation for healthcare providers to use when seeking to understand the potential needs of a given patient. Patient population data does not provide sufficient data to cover the needs of any individual patient, but it does help to create guardrails by wading through a variety of factors that could skew results one way or another.

Advocating for Specialized Care 

Clearly defined patient populations give healthcare providers the ability to better advocate for the needs of specific patient populations.

An example of this type of advocacy is for the diabetic patient population, particularly in rural areas. Many people with diabetes in rural areas don’t have access to the type of specialized care necessary to diagnose and treat preventable conditions such as diabetic retinopathy. But patient population data can help to obtain specialized medication and equipment for conditions such as glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy. 

Patient Population Examples

For an idea of what patient populations are, consider common demographics, from the healthcare world to the types of people you encounter on a daily basis. A few examples include: 

Diverse Patient Populations

Diverse patient populations are often concentrated in urban areas. These patients may have a wide range of differences such as ethnicity, religion, and lifestyle, but may share a common factor such as income that puts them in the same patient population.

Rural Patient Populations

A rural area is defined as having a population of less than 5,000. Patient populations in rural areas will likely have factors in common such as income, level of education, ethnicity, and lifestyle habits. 

Criteria for Determining Patient Populations 

Patient populations can be determined by gathering data on a variety of subjects. Most commonly, a patient population will be determined by gathering broad metrics and then narrowing those categories over time.

An example of this would be determining a population of elderly patients across the United States. That population can then be further narrowed down based on the needed information, such as determining the elderly population on a state-by-state basis and then determining the elderly population with diabetes in one particular state or region, and so on. 

IRIS and Patient Populations

Patient population data can be used to determine rural areas that are in need of portable fundus cameras for in-home diabetic retinopathy screenings. The more equipped rural physicians and in-home healthcare providers are to screen for diseases that cause preventable blindness like diabetic retinopathy, the more individuals can access vision-saving treatment. 

 

FAQs

What is a patient population?

A patient population is a group of people with one or multiple demographics in common that impact their healthcare needs. 

How is a patient population determined?

Patient populations are determined through data collection and individuals who all fall within a specific, relevant demographic. 

 

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SM 185, Rev A