Mission
The Healthy City encourages all people to take charge of their own health, work together to build healthy communities, and join the movement to reclaim health care that heals.
Vision
We dream of a world where every city exists in harmony with the natural environment, with walkable neighborhoods, access to healthy foods, and regional health improvement collaboratives to ensure primary and preventive health care for all.
What we do
The Healthy City encourages discussion of what it takes to build healthy communities through our articles, online discussions, publications, town halls, seminars, lectures, and study tours.
About Jim Bailey, MD, MPH, founder and editor
Jim is a general internal medicine physician, a fellow in the American College of Physicians, a health care quality researcher, and author of an award-winning novel, The End of Healing. He has dedicated his career to empowering others to take charge of their health. He was founding chair of the Common Table Health Alliance, the regional health improvement collaborative for the MidSouth, and he founded TheHealthyCity.org in 2012 to encourage people in cities and regions throughout the country to organize for health. Jim believes that every community should organize its own healthy city collaborative to take charge of its health and health care resources.
Jim studied the classics at St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland and earned his medical degree and masters in public health at the University of Alabama in Birmingham. He completed a residency in primary care internal medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle and stayed on an additional year as a chief medical resident. Today, Dr. Bailey holds the Robert S. Pearce Endowed Chair in Internal Medicine at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, where he serves as professor of medicine and preventive medicine, cares for the sick, and teaches doctors in training. He directs the Center for Health System Improvement, where his research demonstrates how we can best improve health care for everyday Americans.
Jim has published over seventy journal articles, book chapters, and editorials that bridge the gap between science and the humanities. In 2004, he turned to fiction to better reach the minds and hearts of everyday Americans about the path to better health and health care in today’s world. His first novel, The End of Healing, gives voice to the many victims of our dysfunctional healthcare system. Their stories will help us find the path to true healing.
Jim is a noted speaker. He has shared the story of his discovery of the path to health care that heals at colleges, universities, and conferences nationwide, including:
- University of Washington, University of Kentucky, University of Pennsylvania, St. John’s College, Medical University of South Carolina, University of Alabama at Birmingham, University of Memphis, Rhodes College, Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine, and Emory University
- Society of General Internal Medicine, HealthWatch USA, Massachusetts General Hospital, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Tennessee American College of Physicians Annual Meeting, American Medical Association Delegates Meeting, Cleveland Society for Obstetrics and Gynecology, Tennessee American Nurses Association Annual Convention
- Keynote talks at the D.B. Reinhart Institute for Ethics in Leadership, Viterbo University; The Episcopal Churchmen of Tennessee 69th Annual Conference; Seidman Annual Town Hall Lecture, Christian Brothers University; 1st International Medical Olympiad, Kos, Greece
Contact Jim to schedule a talk for your group or to learn how you and your community can take charge of your health and health care resources.
