Roshel Jayasundera’s Post

A focus on health equity is critical to achieving better health outcomes in our communities. With the #AIRevolution taking hold in so many areas of healthcare, we have the tools to reach out to many underserved communities who may not have received an appropriate quality of care in the past. #HealthEquity #HealthOutcomes

Great read with insightful recommendations highlighting the need for personalization, and having a whole health mindset in approaching engagement and activation strategies to close gaps in health equity. https://lnkd.in/ebfiPB4D

How to Advance Health Equity While Improving Your Bottom Line

Did you know that making a positive impact on your plan members' lives doesn't have to be complicated? It's all about taking those important first steps and adjusting as you go along. Let's put health equity into action with these simple 1-2-3 tips! 👉 1️⃣ Take stock of the Social Determinants of Health (SDoH) benefits you already offer. Assessing what you currently provide can help you identify areas where you can make an immediate impact on health equity. 2️⃣ Engage a partner who actually schedules the member in 5 minutes or less. Join forces with a partner who specializes in member outreach and getting care scheduled (think of it like "scheduling as a service"). 3️⃣ Watch as member experience and outcomes improve. By putting health equity into action, you'll witness firsthand the amazing transformations that occur when your plan members have access to the resources and care they deserve. Together, we can make a real difference! Remember, the journey towards health equity starts with taking that first step. Let's make each day count and work towards a healthier, more equitable future for all. 💪🏽💙 #HealthEquity #MakingADifference #SocialDeterminantsOfHealth #TogetherWeCan

"It could be almost a decade before the United States medical industry sees any significant improvement in health equity, according to survey data from the Rise to Health Coalition, with many industry stakeholders lacking any confidence that the US is equipped to tackle the issue." We've seen conversations about racial health disparities and the importance of health equity become more prevalent in recent years, but it hasn't had much of an impact in practice. The thing is, driving equity in healthcare means looking beyond the realm of just health. Equity somewhere requires equity everywhere. #Equity #Health #HealthEquity

Health is an inherent human right, and health equity thrives when all realize their optimal well-being. Essential to this are knowledge, vigilance, and analysis – the pillars of actionable equity. World Health Organization Health Inequality Data Repository reveals that eradicating wealth-driven disparities in child mortality could save over 1.8 million lives in middle-income countries. Rohit Bhagwat, Principal and ESG lead ZS, shares his perspective on this topic with Express Healthcare. He highlights the challenges in health disparities across public and private sectors, and most important, profound solutions for better health outcomes for the world at large. Read the full article here. #Health #HealthEquity #Healthcare

We hear a rallying call in a recent 2024 Health Equity Outlook report conducted by The Deloitte Health Equity Institute. It’s not just that leaders are declaring health equity a top-10 goal for 2024. It’s the reality behind that goal: nearly half of health care leaders expect to increase health equity investments this year. An even higher percentage of health equity leaders (60%) say increased community engagement and collaboration is their top 2024 priority. https://bit.ly/48RdK6W At SSM Health, community collaborations are the key to our advancement of health equity. This year, we are building on our community partnerships and our organization’s efforts to achieve equity, ranging from maternal health to food insecurity to behavioral health. In this pivotal moment, let’s propel health equity forward and create a future where every individual can access the care needed for a healthy life. #HealthEquity #HealthcareInnovation #TransformativeHealthcare

“Both and” is such a helpful concept for life and for health equity work. This article by Aletha Maybank, MD, MPH, Ronald L. Copeland, MD, FACS, Bayard Love, Sallie George, Jennifer Davis, Yveneed (Yve) Francois, MPH, Russ Gaskin, highlights key creative tensions in health equity. These creative tensions include: ● “Advancing Targeted Solutions For Those Most Harmed And Pursuing Better Outcomes For All” ● “Changing hearts and informing minds” ● “Holding Individuals Accountable And Changing Structures And Systems” ● Advancing Deep Understanding Of Racial Inequity And Providing Entry Points For Potential Partners ● Leveraging Formal Power And Informal Influence The authors also provide practices to embrace creative tensions in quality improvement and leadership levels. We would also like to highlight how powerful these practices are at the level of direct patient care. ● Set a both-and context can occur when a healthcare professional recognizes that a department is very busy, and a family needs a few minutes of undivided attention to address inequities and to ensure their needs are met. Addressing the need versus seeing it as a scarcity of time, may actually save time throughout the shift by preventing miscommunication and silencing of concerns. ● Reframing in real-time is an excellent practice healthcare professionals can integrate into their daily work, asking clarifying questions about language they hear in report, e.g. “the patient is so difficult”, and centering partnership building with patient families toward a common shared goal. A team member can acknowledge it is really hard to approach a patient who is unhappy with their care, and can center the opportunity to shift the focus to what the patient might be thinking or feeling. ● Differentiate, then validate, then integrate is a great practice to listen to understand versus listening to respond. As healthcare professionals, we often like to jump to fixing/solutions, and this practice promotes hearing perspectives, validating, prior to looking for solutions. This article provides practical tools to help embrace the tensions that arise in health equity work. Thank you to the authorship team for providing this language and clear practices to advance health equity. #healthequity #bothand #implicitbiasinterruption https://lnkd.in/gy2xCeEu

Reframe in real-time and set a both and context; two concepts I love that this authorship team highlights in Health Affairs. Health equity is daily work, based in love and respect. Thank you to the authors for sharing this practical article for healthcare professionals #healthequity

It's been 1,247 days since the murder of Mr. George Floyd and 1,322 days since Covid was officially declared a pandemic. The recent industry-wide spotlight on #healthequity grew out of the convergence of these unforgettable events. And while we gained a lot of health equity tourists and bandwagon fans of health equity in 2020, it begs the question--is health equity really a priority? I appreciated this deep dive by Bain & Company to answer just that. The most compelling of all their findings to me is this: "About 30% of executives believe the case for improving health equity is entirely social, without business motivations. As a result, they often treat health equity initiatives as philanthropic endeavors that lack the same rigor and dedicated resources as critical bottom-line strategies." From my decades of cross-sector experience, there's SO MUCH I could say on this. I'll leave you with three thoughts for now: 💡 Action expresses priorities. If health equity isn't really a priority stop saying it is. If it IS a priority, then strategize, invest, and act on it like we do for any other business imperative. 💡 As leaders in public health, #healthcare, #pharma, and beyond we have to get savvier and clearer on making the business case for health equity. It's not just the right thing to do, there's a business and economic cost for not doing it. 💡 Health equity is more than a BIPOC, urban issue. There's an intentional, active politicization of health equity that's rooted in #racism. Until we recognize and uproot that, it will never be a top priority. Wanna know more about health equity? Join our Masterclass ✨ ✨ https://lnkd.in/ePHNPzye https://lnkd.in/eDsWXXm5