Massachusetts State Health Improvement Plan (SHIP)

The Massachusetts State Health Improvement Plan (SHIP) outlines key health outcome priority areas for the state, and how these priority areas will be addressed to ultimately improve the health of all people in Massachusetts.

Overview

The SHIP provides a frame of reference for how the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) works collaboratively with its partners to design, implement and monitor selected strategies that aim to improve health outcomes. 

The SHIP offers detailed lists of goals and partners for each priority. Specific bureaus and programs at DPH are the primary leads for each priority and coordinate policy making, program design, and resource allocation. The SHIP aligns closely with the department’s Strategic Plan to Advance Racial Equity, and priorities defined by the Administration, the Commissioner of Public Health, federal funders’ priorities, and  DPH advisory bodies. Strategies, activities, and performance measures may change over time reflecting updated data, new funding opportunities, and shifts in priorities. 

Four priority areas

The SHIP outlines goals, improvement strategies, assets and resources to promote health and equity in Massachusetts. You can find plan details, data, and information on what Massachusetts is doing for each for the following priority areas: 

1. Chronic Disease

In Massachusetts, chronic diseases are the most common and costly health outcomes. Fifty-six percent of deaths in Massachusetts are caused by just four chronic diseases: cancer, diabetes, chronic lower respiratory disease, and cardiovascular disease (CVD). These four chronic diseases alone account for more than 50% of total healthcare expenditures.  

Learn more about data and strategies on Chronic Disease, particularly Asthma

2. Drug Overdose Prevention

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, drug overdose is a leading cause of injury mortality in the United States¹. Here in Massachusetts, over 20,000 people have died from drug overdoses in the last 20 years, driven in recent years in large part by an increasingly contaminated drug supply. Current and historic policies that put people who use drugs further at risk - such as the policing of drug use, the housing affordability crisis, and limited access to effective drug treatment - have caused this overdose crisis to disparately impact communities of color². 

Learn more about data and strategies on Drug Overdose Prevention

3. HIV, STIs, and Tuberculosis

DPH takes an integrated approach to addressing HIV, viral hepatitis, sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and tuberculosis. This approach involves combined policy approaches. These approaches are centralized specimen collection; co-testing; case management in a single data system; and an integrated infectious disease drug assistance program.

Learn more about data and strategies on HIV, STIs, and Tuberculosis

4. Maternal Morbidity and Mortality

Birthing people in the United States are more likely to die from childbirth or pregnancy-related causes than birthing people in other high-income countries. Research shows that more than 80% of these deaths may be preventable³. Moreover, racial and ethnic inequities in maternal health outcomes exist and have persisted for decades. 

Learn more about data and strategies on Maternal Morbidity and Mortality

1. National Center for Health Statistics, National Vital Statistics System, Mortality. See Sources and Definitions, National Vital Statistics System (NVSS) and Health, United States, 2020–2021 Table ODMort. 

2. Alexander, Michelle, author. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New York: New Press, 2010.

3. Trost SL, Beauregard J, Njie F, et al. Pregnancy-Related Deaths: Data from Maternal Mortality Review Committees in 36 US States, 2017–2019. Atlanta, GA: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, US Department of Health and Human Services; 2022.