As director of the Institute for Population Health Improvement at the University of California, Davis, Kenneth W. Kizer brings plenty of experience in the use of technology to help manage large populations.

A physician by training who is board-certified in several specialties, Dr. Kizer was California’s top health official before serving as undersecretary for health in the Department of Veterans Affairs in the 1990s. At the VA, he is credited with modernizing the nation’s largest health system, including adopting one of the first major electronic health records systems. He later was founding president and chief executive of the National Quality Forum, which sets quality standards and performance measures for U.S. health-care providers. He recently answered questions from The Wall Street Journal’s Laura Landro. Edited excerpts follow.

WSJ: What does population health mean, and why is it important?

DR. KIZER: Population health refers to the health status or health outcomes of a group of people who share one or more common characteristics. Populations can be defined by age, gender, race or ethnicity, where they live, type of health insurance, clinical conditions such as diabetes or asthma, or any number of other characteristics.

The term population health was introduced about a decade ago to recognize the important role that factors other than health care have in determining health outcomes. Prominent among these factors are education, employment, housing, transportation, public safety, lifestyle and the environment. Many people are surprised to learn that these social determinants of health have more to do with reducing preventable deaths and improving population health than health care itself.