The Health Disparities Podcast

“From the health community, we recognize that climate change is a public health issue, and we stand ready to address that. I’m so proud that this administration has named the first office in HHS that is going to address Climate Change and Health Equity.”  ~ Dr. Doris Browne. Sequel to Episode 101.

Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), originally called Workplace Affinity Groups, began in the 1960s in response to racial tensions in the United States. These groups have roots in the desire to advocate for employees and give them a space at work to be their best authentic selves. To what extent are ERGs making a difference in benefiting employees, their employers, and the many stakeholders engaged with organizations, including patients?

In her book Flatling, released in 2019, Dr. Adia Wingfield articulated how the burden of equity initiatives furthering diversity and inclusion in healthcare is being disproportionately shouldered by the very populations these initiatives intend to support. Today our panel revisits Flatlining and explores the additional implications of the pandemic for equity work during this “new-new economy,” and discuss some of the challenges and solutions in leading organizational change towards culturally sensitive care and minority representation.

After experiencing care that did not align with her expectations, Sheena Franklin has embarked on a mission to make dermatology more accessible and equitable. In today’s episode K’ept Health CEO Sheena Franklin discusses how innovation can take us closer to personalized and equitable healthcare.

Our diverse panel of professionals share many experiences that shaped their development, and insights they gleaned along the way, as they overcame barriers such as bias and microaggressions to achieve their career and life goals.

Part 2: COVID-19 context. A group of independent and competing organizations decided to work together collaboratively so that their community health needs assessment (CHNA) covers more people and a larger area. Our panel continues their discussion about this novel, collaborative, community-wide model for completing a CHNA, and explores how it enabled them to build a more coordinated response to the pandemic.

Part 1. Community health needs assessments and implementation strategies are required for tax-exempt hospitals as a result of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. They provide a framework to improve coordination of hospital community benefits with other efforts to improve community health.

After building a career in hospital management and healthcare consulting, Duane Reynolds gravitated towards the health equity space after leading several inclusion-focused initiatives.

June 5th is World Environment Day, an initiative of the United Nations, and part of the framework that ended the ozone layer crisis. But now there are new environmental crises looming large and threatening our most vulnerable populations.

Podcast host Sharon LaSure-Roy and series producer Rolf Taylor discuss the overall mission of The Health Disparities Podcast, a program of the Movement is Life Caucus.