The Commonwealth Fund is a
private U.S. foundation whose stated purpose is to "promote a high-performing health care system that achieves better access, improved quality, and greater efficiency, particularly for society's most vulnerable, including low-income people, the uninsured, and people of color." It is active in a number of areas related to health care and health policy. It is led by
David Blumenthal
David Blumenthal (born August 31, 1948) is an academic physician and health care policy expert, known as the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology from 2009 to 2011 during the early implementation of the Health Information Tec ...
, M.D.
Healthcare rankings
Since 2004 it has produced reports comparing healthcare systems in high income countries using survey and administrative data from the
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; french: Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques, ''OCDE'') is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental organisation with 38 member countries ...
and the
World Health Organization
The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of h ...
which is analyzed under five themes: access to care, the care process, administrative efficiency, equity and health-care outcomes. The United States has been assessed as worst health-care system overall among 11 high-income countries in every report, even though it spends the highest proportion of its gross domestic product on health care. In 2021 Norway, the Netherlands and Australia were the top-performing countries.
Founding and early program history
The Commonwealth Fund, one of the first foundations to be established by a woman, was founded in 1918 with an endowment of almost $10 million by
Anna M. Harkness
Anna Maria Richardson Harkness (October 25, 1837 – March 27, 1926) was an American philanthropist.
Early life
She was born on October 25, 1837, in Dalton, Ohio, and was the daughter of James Richardson and Anna ( née Ranck) Richardson. Not m ...
. The widow of
Stephen V. Harkness, a principal investor in
Standard Oil
Standard Oil Company, Inc., was an American oil production, transportation, refining, and marketing company that operated from 1870 to 1911. At its height, Standard Oil was the largest petroleum company in the world, and its success made its co-f ...
, Mrs. Harkness wanted to “do something for the welfare of mankind.” Anna's son,
Edward Stephen Harkness
Edward Stephen Harkness (January 22, 1874 – January 29, 1940) was an American philanthropist. Given privately and through his family's Commonwealth Fund, Harkness' gifts to private hospitals, art museums, and educational institutions in the Nort ...
, became the Commonwealth Fund's first president and hired a staff of people to help him build the foundation. Edward Harkness possessed a "passionate commitment to social reform" and was "determined to improve health and health services for Americans." Through additional gifts and bequests between 1918 and 1959, the Harkness family's total contribution to the fund's endowment amounted to more than $53 million. Today, the Commonwealth Fund's endowment stands at almost $700 million.
According to the Rockefeller Archive Center, the Commonwealth Fund's “early grants supported a variety of programs while generally promoting welfare, especially child welfare.”
Over the years, it has given support to
medical schools
A medical school is a tertiary educational institution, or part of such an institution, that teaches medicine, and awards a professional degree for physicians. Such medical degrees include the Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS, M ...
and to the building of hospitals and clinics. In
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, the Commonwealth Fund and Edward Harness largely orchestrated the merger of
Columbia Medical School
Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons (VP&S) is the graduate medical school of Columbia University, located at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan. Founded i ...
and
Presbyterian Hospital. The merger culminated in the construction of the worlds first
academic medical center
An academic medical centre (AMC), variously also known as academic health science centre, academic health science system, or academic health science partnership, is an educational and healthcare institute formed by the grouping of a health profes ...
then-called
Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center
NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center (NYP/CUIMC), also known as the Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC), is an academic medical center and the largest campus of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. It includes Co ...
of the in 1922. The Hospital continues to operate today as NewYork-Presbyterian / Columbia University Irving Medical Center which contains the Harkness Pavillion and the Edward S. Harkness Eye Institute
By the mid-1920s the chief interest of the foundation had become
public health
Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the det ...
, including
mental hygiene
Mental health encompasses emotional, psychological, and social well-being, influencing cognition, perception, and behavior. It likewise determines how an individual handles stress, interpersonal relationships, and decision-making. Mental health ...
,
community health Community health refers to simple health services that are delivered by laymen outside hospitals and clinics. Community health is also the subset of public health that is taught to and practiced by clinicians. Community health volunteers and communi ...
, rural hospitals, medical research, and medical education.
Other grant areas included war relief, educational and legal research, and international medical fellowships.
In 1925, the Commonwealth Fund launched its international program of fellowships called the Commonwealth Fund Fellowships (now the Harkness Fellowships). Until the 1990s, the fellowship was open to scholars of all academic disciplines, and included many who went on to excel in science, the arts and business.
From the late 1920s through the 1940s, the Commonwealth Fund supported the construction of rural hospitals, paving the way for the
Hill-Burton Act in 1946. Following World War II, the foundation supported the development of new medical schools in the United States in an effort to address doctor shortages and meet the needs of communities lacking health care services. Other achievements include the Rochester Regional Hospital Council and the development of the Nurse Practitioner and Physician Assistant professions.
![Child_receiving_rabies_innoculation](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e3/Child_receiving_rabies_innoculation.png)
In the 1940s, the fund supported research by Dr.
Georgios Papanikolaou
Georgios Nikolaou Papanikolaou (or George Papanicolaou ; el, Γεώργιος Ν. Παπανικολάου ; 13 May 1883 – 19 February 1962) was a Greek physician who was a pioneer in cytopathology and early cancer detection, and inventor of ...
that pioneered the
Pap test
The Papanicolaou test (abbreviated as Pap test, also known as Pap smear (AE), cervical smear (BE), cervical screening (BE), or smear test (BE)) is a method of cervical screening used to detect potentially precancerous and cancerous processes in t ...
as the basic technique for detecting cervical cancer. Refinement of cardiac catheterization into routine treatment resulted in a 1956
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...
for the Fund-supported researchers.
In the 1960s and early 1970s, the organization focused on developing urban health care systems, and in the late 1970s, worked to improve medical school curricula. In the 1980s, the Commonwealth Fund played a prominent role in the development of the
patient-centered care
Patient participation is a trend that arose in answer to medical paternalism. Informed consent is a process where patients make decisions informed by the advice of medical professionals.
In recent years, the term "patient participation" has been ...
movement and helped draw attention to the needs of older Americans.
![Harkness House, 1908](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/Harkness_House%2C_1908.jpg)
While the Commonwealth Fund does not typically accept donations, several gifts to the foundation have increased the endowment and expanded the scope of the Commonwealth Fund's projects and programs:
* In 1986, Jean and
Harvey Picker
Harvey Picker (December 8, 1915 – March 22, 2008) was an American businessman, educator, inventor, and philanthropist. He was the founder, along with his wife, Jean, of the Boston-based ''Picker Institute'', whose goal was to promote patien ...
merged $15 million in assets of the James Picker Foundation with those of the Commonwealth Fund.
* In 1996, the Commonwealth Fund received $1.7 million from the Health Services Improvement Fund with a mandate to use the funds to improve health care coverage, access, and quality in the New York City greater metropolitan region.
* In 1999, Floriana Hogan left $100,000 to the fund, and Frances Cooke Macgregor contributed $3.1 million to the endowment in 2002.
References
External links
Commonwealth FundCommonwealth Fund ArchivesEdward S. Harkness Eye Instituteat
NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital The NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital is a nonprofit academic medical center in New York City affiliated with two Ivy League medical schools, Cornell University and Columbia University. The hospital comprises seven distinct campuses located in the New Y ...
Pictures and history of Harkness House
{{Authority control
1918 establishments in the United States
Health charities in the United States
Medical and health foundations in the United States
Harkness family