Barbers across the country are helping their customers identify and prevent health problems. For Black men, these trusted relationships can be a lifesaver. // By Althea Fung // We all know the trope — men don’t like to visit the doctor. Unfortunately, for Black men, the cliché has all too real consequences. Black men avoid Read More
The art of planning a conference involves taking the pulse of an industry, reflecting on the major themes, and creating a program that recharges attendees with inspirational ideas and the opportunity to build deeper connections with each other, and challenges them to think differently and consider fresh perspectives. At this year’s SHSMD Connections, it was Read More
Four keynote speakers encourage conference attendees to rebalance, reassess, rebound, and reset. // By Jane Weber Brubaker // The art of planning a conference involves taking the pulse of an industry, reflecting on the major themes, and creating a program that recharges attendees with inspirational ideas and the opportunity to build deeper connections with each Read More
When providers demonstrate warmth and an empathetic, human view of health care, it matters to consumers. // By Althea Fung // People respond to people. But with the rise of technology in marketing, many brands sound less and less human. This is particularly true in health care, where organizations haven’t traditionally been consumer-centric. But some Read More
This is a tale of three cities, or more accurately, two cities and a state, where partnerships between faith-based organizations and health systems — built on trust and mutual respect — are solving some of health care’s toughest challenges. // By Jane Weber Brubaker // An article titled “COVID and Race” appeared in the New Read More
Growing up, Lloyd Dean saw the impact of health disparities in his own community. His experiences motivated him to use his formidable leadership abilities to change things for the better. He will retire this summer after a long and impactful career. “Imagine 11 people in a house of three bedrooms and being on welfare when Read More
View from the C-Suite, with Lloyd Dean, President and CEO of CommonSpirit Health // By Jane Weber Brubaker // Growing up, Lloyd Dean saw the impact of health disparities in his own community. His experiences motivated him to use his formidable leadership abilities to change things for the better. He will retire this summer after Read More
The “Three C’s of Health Equity” aim to enhance providers’ knowledge about the cultures or groups usually defined by racial/ethnic or sexual minority groups, says attorney Ndome Yvonne Essoka. Here’s an excerpt from her new article: In recent times, buzzwords like “cultural competence”, “cultural humility,” and “cultural safety” have grown in popularity and become rooted Read More
// By Ndome Yvonne Essoka // The “Three C’s of Health Equity” aim to enhance providers’ knowledge about the cultures or groups usually defined by racial/ethnic or sexual minority groups. Safety and humility are key. In recent times, buzzwords like “cultural competence,” “cultural humility,” and “cultural safety” have grown in popularity and become rooted into Read More
As diversity, equity, and inclusion continue to increase in importance, Advocate Aurora Health has been making strong progress in connecting online with the more than 2.2 million Hispanics who live in its service area. The Illinois and Wisconsin provider launched a market-wide social media initiative at the end of 2019 designed to “position the organization Read More
// By Brian Griffin // One of the Midwest’s largest health systems is effectively using social media to reach its Spanish-speaking population with information about COVID-19 and important health services for the community. As diversity, equity, and inclusion continue to increase in importance, Advocate Aurora Health has been making strong progress in connecting online with Read More
“The ability to attract, activate, and guide consumers through health care’s labyrinth depends not only on reimagining the business of health care but building relationships of value and trust that result in inspired, confident customers,” says Lindsay R. Resnick of Wunderman Thompson Health. Here’s an excerpt from his new article: Health care transformation was all Read More
// By Lindsay R. Resnick // The ability to attract, activate, and guide consumers through health care’s labyrinth depends not only on reimagining the business of health care but building relationships of value and trust that result in inspired, confident customers. Health care transformation was all the buzz throughout 2021. To be transformed means to Read More
“For two years, marketing and communication professionals have faced the excruciating crisis of a pandemic nothing fully prepared us for,” says Rhoda Weiss, president of the Rhoda Weiss Consulting Group. “We’re changing how and from where we work, balancing dichotomies of layoffs and staff shortages, experiencing colleague and personal burnout, dealing with new and conflicting Read More
// By Rhoda Weiss, Ph.D. // As we approach the two-year mark of the pandemic, it’s clear that the crisis has forged strong alliances across the industry. Leaders have come together to share best practices and help one another address challenges common to all. For two years, marketing and communication professionals have faced the excruciating Read More
COVID testing. Vaccines. Health equity. Do they fall under public health or clinical care? In most cases, it’s both, or should be. The gap between hospital-based clinical care and public health is shrinking, as community health initiatives increasingly focus on wellness and prevention. Health systems typically function as separate entities. Nationwide, the drive for revenues and Read More
// By Marcia Simon, APR // “Medicine and public health share a common mission … however, important differences have prevented their integration and effective working collaboration,” says the author of a 2020 NIH publication: Covid-19: An Imperative to Bridge the Gap Between Medicine and Public Health. The work of the King County Hospitals for a Read More
Things are changing when the CEO of a major health system comprising 14 hospitals — soon to be 18 — tosses around phrases like “health care at any address” and says things like, “We want to be the partner for those people who want to thrive without health care getting in the way.” The definition Read More
View from the C-Suite: Stephen K. Klasko, MD, MBA, President, Thomas Jefferson University and CEO, Jefferson Health // By Jane Weber Brubaker // There are two words Steve Klasko uses a lot: “What if…?” Like other visionary health system leaders, he’s scaling up to meet the reality of health care today, while at the same Read More
The status for diversity, inclusion, and health equity initiatives across America? It’s complicated. How do you train your staff about biases toward patients and colleagues when they don’t believe they have any? We all grow up with assumptions and stereotypical views of the world and the people in it. For the health care industry, fair Read More
// By Marcia Simon, APR // Just the notion that groups of people are overlooked or marginalized means there’s much work to be done to level the playing field. The past year of glaring health disparities revealed that health care as an industry needs to step up and root out biases, even when unconscious, that Read More
A few seminal moments led to the genesis of the Bluford Healthcare Leadership Institute (BHLI). Marketed as an intense professional development program, BHLI has a self-proclaimed mission to “eliminate health care disparities among minority and vulnerable populations by cultivating a pipeline of culturally competent under-represented scholars for leadership roles in health care.” John W. Bluford Read More
View from the C-Suite: Toby Cosgrove, MD, Executive Advisor and Former CEO and President of Cleveland Clinic // By Jane Weber Brubaker // In an interview with StartUp Health co-founders, Dr. Toby Cosgrove shares his perspectives on what we’ve learned from the pandemic, how technology accelerated innovation, and how it will continue to open new Read More
View from the C-Suite: John W. Bluford III, Founder and President, Bluford Healthcare Leadership Institute // By Ndome Yvonne Essoka // John Bluford was inspired by his own mid-career program at Harvard to become a mentor, and then went on to create a mentorship program for high-achieving African American students. The program seeks to develop Read More
// By Ndome Yvonne Essoka // Black people account for 21 percent of deaths from COVID-19, yet they make up only 13 percent of the U.S. population. As researchers move forward with vaccine clinical trials, low participation among Black people — just 3 percent, according to the New England Journal of Medicine — is cause Read More