ViVE 2023: 4 Key Takeaways From Our “Health Equity Activation: Moving from Vision to Impact” Luncheon

Taking over Music City, U.S.A., the ViVE Conference 2023 drew more than 7,500 attendees from across the country, including over 2,000 C-level executives, senior digital health leaders, health startups and investors, government, and solution providers.

Excitement filled the air as innovators and visionaries took advantage of opportunities to connect and network, exchanging solution-based ideas and thoughts to solve today’s health care challenges. Also hovering in the air was the collective given – the health care system is broken.

While there are many topics to discuss and challenges to tackle, my focus is on health equity.

Per 安永 research and analysis, the US government, philanthropic organizations, and corporations have invested $179 billion to realize the vision of health equity. Yet, the impact has been little to null.

Significant work lies ahead to move the needle forward, but renewed efforts are being developed to advance health equity. It’s not only a concern for entities like governments, health care systems and public health agencies. It has also landed on the C-suite agenda as an organizational priority - the focus of the panel discussion I moderated at ViVE Conference 2023.

Entitled, “Health Equity Activation: Moving from Vision to Impact,” I was joined by a panel of five action- oriented, forward-thinking thought leaders across public health, provider, payer, community-based organizations, and technology to offer stakeholder perspectives and explore the components of sustainable organizational health equity strategies and how organizations position themselves for success as they strive to positively impact vulnerable populations.

The challenge of achieving health equity is grand – it’s complex and multidimensional. No individual stakeholder can solve the issue alone. We’re more powerful as a collective, as an industry, and as a society. Here are four takeaways from my esteemed guests:

1. Prioritize connectivity

Conditions in the places where individuals live, learn, work, worship, age and play, along with access to health care, health insurance, housing, transportation, food, and other assistance programs, are considered Social Determinants of Health (SDOH), accounting for an estimated 80-90% of an individual’s health status.

In thinking about patients, connectivity plays a major role within SDOHs. Whether accessing online patient portals, attending a telehealth appointment, or completing applications for housing or employment, these processes are increasingly, and sometimes exclusively, accessible online. Therefore digital inclusivity is a must.

Connectivity in regard to providers, will support the delivery of better, intentional care, directly impacting patients beyond the waiting room and the clinic, and beyond the bedside and discharge. Integration of activities done by community-based organizations should be optimized by connectivity said Paul J. Black of Community Care Links. Further, the data produced on the backend offers organizations a record of performance and the opportunity to examine organizational successes and failures, in addition to understanding their patients from a holistic lens – who they are, their compliance to treatment plans, medications, their experiences in the white spaces they find themselves in, once they leave clinics and hospitals, any connectivity to other social needs, etc.

2. Prioritize technology

The power of technology….

A complementary contributor to realizing sustainable health equity, “technology should be viewed as the connective tissue across the industry and sectors”, said panelist, David Rhew, M.D. . “Positioning the entire health ecosystem for visibility of performance and sustainability of process”.

Not only does technology enable the bidirectional flow of information to help disparate systems communicate with each other, it:

• allows the collection, organization and sorting of data, lending to efficiency in measuring actions and outcomes,
• drives and enables decision-making (data), leading to business value/ROI and enhanced care
• eases reporting and adherence to regulatory demands
• illuminates opportunities for growth, programming, partnership, and investment
• saves time and effort through automation

3. Prioritize people and community

People are essential to the health equity conversation.

Patients: providers must be aware of challenges related to access and accessibility to care, including physical and mental disabilities; cultural differences; specific social needs; timing and the access to care in the way it’s needed; and language and communication., especially in rural America said panelist Kimberly Lamar, PhD, MPH, MS .

Workforce: health equity does not and cannot stand by itself, it should be integrated throughout an organization. This first starts with ensuring the workforce is representative of the populations being served. Also, C-suite and employees must be aligned and speak common language regarding health equity as an organizational goal; everyone must be committed and held accountable in working towards health equity, improved outcomes and enhanced patient and provider experiences according to panelist U. Michael Currie .

Community: stress the importance of partnership and commitment, as they are just as important as funding. Engage with faith communities, academia, nonprofits, state and local governments and officials, and public and private businesses to build trust within communities being served and to sustain progress, even after funding eases.

4. Prioritize collaboration and discussion

“Health equity is everyone’s work”, said panelist, Nwando Anyaoku, MD, MPH, MBA . Equity is a key pillar of health care quality, necessitating a collaborative effort. Sure, as the panelists mentioned, partnerships with public and private businesses, governments, and communities, etc. are a must, but the health care system, our system, must be the pioneers of change in our industry.

This starts, first and foremost, with ensuring the health equity conversation never stops. It is essential for health organizations and systems to collaborate through the exchange of actionable ideas, innovative strategies and solutions, experiences, trends, and results – in and across departments and industries.

Collaboration is also valuable when building a health equity strategy. Engage in discussions outside of the mandatory stakeholders to define and design business objectives, KPIs, and processes, while creating a culture of expected involvement, allyship and anti-racism amongst peers and employees.

Challenging our peers and partners in other sectors is another form of collaboration. Encouraging transparency about their initiatives to advance health equity and go on record with their commitments and actions toward an equitable health care system.

Every day, social, economic and other injustices continue to create barriers to prevent access to high- quality health care. It is up to us, our industry, to make the concerted effort and investment to combat health inequities using every available resource – from the power of conversation to partnerships to technology.

The views reflected in this article ae the views of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Ernst & Young LLP or other members of the global EY organization.