N. Halfon et al., The health development organization: An organizational approach to achieving child health development, MILBANK Q, 78(3), 2000, pp. 447
The health development organization (HDO) is a new approach to the organiza
tion and delivery of children's health and social services. The HDO would c
ombine the best features of vertically integrated HMOs with horizontally in
tegrated, child-focused social services and longitudinally integrated healt
h promotion strategies. Its mandate would be to develop the health of child
ren in a community. The impetus for creating HDOs is a growing body of evid
ence in chronic disease epidemiology, developmental psychopathology, early
intervention research, and life course cohort studies chat point to childho
od as the period of life during which adult health status is determined and
the opportunities for health capital formation are highest. Thus, a new ki
nd of health care organization or framework, like the HDO, is needed to int
egrate a full range of critical services for promoting children's developme
nt.