Yale Healthcare Conference - Recap: Morning Breakout
Panel on Driving Health Equity
Yale School of Management Pozen-Commonwealth Fellows brought the house down with arguments and inspiration for a better, more equitable healthcare future.
Key takeaways:
There is no downside to work together towards a more equitable healthcare system. Our communities, businesses, and future generations will only benefit from our efforts to move this needle. To do so, health equity must be foundational and interwoven throughout every decision in the space.
Quotes/Nuggets of note:
“Learn how to innovate and disrupt in the health equity space.” We weren’t taught these tools, but they are SO critical to our efforts to make the change our healthcare system, and society needs. – Mikah Owen, Social Pediatrician, UC Davis & Sacramento County Public Health
“We need this to be THE conversation … My advice would be to question everything from an equity lens.” - Alicia Hardy, CEO, OLE Health
With all the VC and PE money pouring into healthcare right now, “health equity” has been absent as a focus. “We can influence the theses of these funds. We can have relationships with capital managers.” – Fatimah Muhammad, Exec. Director, Health Alliance for Violence Intervention (HAVI)
To adequately internalize the need for and carry-forward the mission of improving health equity takes a significant life event, a history of experiences, and/or reflection on the ills of society in relation to healthcare. Pozen-Commonwealth fellow Steven Starks, Clinical Asst. Professor, Univ. of Houston College of Medicine, shared that his trajectory influencing moment of catalysis occurred while practicing medicine in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.
