During the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen health care organizations innovate rapidly to meet the ever-changing needs of a global crisis. As we go into our third pandemic year, we’re taking a step back to examine whether healthcare is more or less equitable now. Listen to this candid conversation with three leaders about the changes and ongoing challenges to flip existing power dynamics within healthcare institutions so that care is anchored in the needs of the underserved communities.

Here’s where you can learn more about the people, places, and ideas in this episode: 

• Sofi Bergkvist, president, Center For Care Innovations
• Michael Lok, planning manager, Asian Health Services
• Sylvia Hacaj, director of development and communications, LifeLong Medical Care
• Eric Lam, account and strategy partner, Exygy
• Webinar: State of Equity: Healthcare for our Safety Net

© 2022 Center for Care Innovations. All Rights Reserved.

In need of a recharge? Perhaps a new approach to working through change? We're joined by Tabitha Thomas — a longtime crisis counselor and centering practitioner — who guides us through a ~12 minute centering practice. 

Following the  meditation, Tabitha unpacks some of her learnings as a student of Emergent Strategy, a book written by social justice facilitator and fellow somatics practitioner, Adrienne Maree Brown. Tabitha threads those lessons with that of human-centered design, namely from CCI's Catalyst program, and she shares guiding principles that inspire us to navigate through this pandemic with intention.

Here’s where you can learn more about the people, places, and ideas in this episode: 

• Tabitha Thomas
• Centering as a meditation practice
• Generative Somatics
• Emergent Strategy by Adrienne Maree Brown
• WEAVE, Inc.
• Catalyst, CCI's human-centered design program
• CCI Webinar: Practicing Centering and Emergent Strategy During Trying Times

© 2022 Center for Care Innovations. All Rights Reserved.

Similar to our last episode with Axis Health, we dive into another health center's digital health solution journey in remote patient monitoring (RPM) during the pandemic — piloting a platform and process that allows patients to take their blood pressure at home, with the data then gathered and assessed by the care team. We chat with Northeast Valley Health Corporation as they share some of the early successes and challenges faced in using this platform with regards to patients' controlled and uncontrolled blood pressure rates, as well as what implementing RPM looks like in the near future. Learn more about the key role of care coordinators and care teams in advancing this work forward.

Here’s where you can learn more about the people, places, and ideas in this episode: 

• Debra Rosen, RN, MPH, Director of Quality and Health Education, Northeast Valley Health Corporation
• Rimidi
• Technology Hub, a CCI program that helps organizations vet, pilot, evaluate, and spread innovative digital health solutions targeting Medicaid markets and historically underinvested communities

© 2022 Center for Care Innovations. All Rights Reserved.

To kick off 2022, we're excited to have Dr. Mai-Khanh Bui-Duy from Salud Para La Gente share the impact of her organization's work as participants in our Connected Care Accelerator (CCA). Mai gives us insight into the benefits of engaging with her fellow participants, as well as how the program has supported her ongoing journey to provide telehealth. Listen to learn about the challenge of shifting patients to video visits, resources shared and adapted by this learning collaborative, and more.

The Center for Care Innovations is continuing the growth of this learning community with a new opportunity for California-based safety-net organizations to participate in the next phase of this program, which will focus on innovation projects to advance equity in telehealth access. For more information and details on how to apply, visit careinnovations.org.

Here’s where you can learn more about the people, places, and ideas in this episode: 

• Connected Care Accelerator: Equity Collaborative - Apply now! The request for applications is now open through March 16, 2022
• Virtual Care Learning Hub - CCI shares the best of the best for achieving health equity through virtual care. This learning hub synthesizes 20+ years of experience filled with great ideas you can start testing right away
• Mai-Khanh Bui-Duy, MD, Director of Population Health and Health Education, Salud Para La Gente

© 2022 Center for Care Innovations. All Rights Reserved.

What is remote patient monitoring? In this episode, we talk with Axis Community Health about launching a digital health solution that captures and records a patient's blood pressure data in the comfort of their own home — all in the middle of the pandemic. Our hope is by sharing the highs and of this pilot project, safety net organizations can apply these lessons learned to their own challenges.

Here’s where you can learn more about the people, places, and ideas in this episode: 

• Amit Pabla, chief quality and transformation officer, Axis Community Health
• CareSignal
• Technology Hub, a CCI program that helps organizations vet, pilot, evaluate, and spread innovative digital health solutions targeting Medicaid markets and historically underinvested communities

© 2021 Center for Care Innovations. All Rights Reserved.

“Positive childhood experiences can help a person become resilient or heal from adversity,” says Dr. Robert Sege, a pediatrician and a professor at the Tufts University School of Medicine. In this episode, Dr. Sege discusses the Healthy Outcomes from Positive Experiences, or HOPE, framework, a new way of seeing and discussing  experiences that support children’s growth and development.

Here’s where you can learn more about the people, places, and ideas in this episode: 

• Dr. Robert Sege, a pediatrician and a professor of Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine, where he directs the Center for Community-Engaged Medicine.
• Healthy Outcomes from Positive Experiences, also known as HOPE, framework
• Adverse childhood experiences, also known as ACEs
• Resilience Beginnings Network, a CCI program dedicated to advancing pediatric care delivery models that are trauma- and resilience-informed so that 100,000 young children and their caregivers have the support they need to be well and thrive

© 2021 Center for Care Innovations. All Rights Reserved.

While “design thinking” is a dynamic improvement and innovation tool, it can also facilitate dehumanization and anti-Blackness. But when we combine the approach with community organizing — a powerful strategy for building people power and righting injustices — this collaboration has the ability to transform the well-being of our most vulnerable populations.

Here’s where you can learn more about the people, places, and ideas in this episode: 

• Aida Mariam Davis, CEO and founder, Decolonize Design
• Celina Culver, community organizer, Pennsylvania United and the Voice of Westmoreland
• Tsega Tamene, head of data science and evaluation, Pillsbury United Communities
• Kelsei Wharton, community associate, Obama Foundation
• CCI Webinar: Designing Through People Power

© 2021 Center for Care Innovations. All Rights Reserved.

Dr. Alicia Lieberman is a renowned psychologist, professor, author, and researcher who directs UCSF’s Child Trauma Research Program. As a trilingual and tricultural Jewish Latina born and raised in Paraguay, she has a special interest in cultural issues involving child development, child rearing, and child mental health. In this episode, she explains how she helped develop the TRIADS framework, a model for adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) screening and strength-based counseling based on trust, empathy, consent, and mutual respect.

Here’s where you can learn more about the people, places, and ideas in this episode: 

• Dr. Alicia Lieberman, director of UCSF’s Child Trauma Research Program
• Adverse childhood experiences, also known as ACEs
• Trauma and Resilience-informed Inquiry for Adversity, Distress, and Strengths, also known as TRIADS, a framework to talk with patients about adverse childhood experiences and create healing relationships
• California ACEs Learning and Quality Improvement Collaborative, also known as CALQIC, a CCI program
• CCI: TRIADS Framework: An Approach to Understanding, Helping, and Healing People Who Experience Trauma
• CCI: Widening the Health Care Lens: Lessons from CALQIC’s Opening Session on Childhood Trauma and Healing

© 2021 Center for Care Innovations. All Rights Reserved.

We can’t solve health inequities in a vacuum. To truly eliminate health disparities, it’s crucial to involve patients and the community and co-design solutions with them. We talk to folks who have partnered with community members and patients to tackle inequities linked to race, ethnicity, poverty, and class. Discussing their journey and challenges, these leaders tell care teams the crucial steps they need for success. 

Here’s where you can learn more about the people, places, and ideas in this episode: 

• Mary Minniti, senior policy and program specialist, Institute for Patient- and Family-Centered Care
• Kelly Bruno, president and chief executive officer, National Health Foundation
• Libby Hoy, founder and chief executive officer, Patient & Family Centered Care Partners
• Leticia Reyes-Nash, director of programmatic services and innovation, Cook County Health and Hospitals System
• Maria Lemus, executive director, Vision y Compromiso
• CCI: Just Listen: Taking on Health Inequities through Patient and Community Engagement
• CCI: Tackling Bias, Fear, Inequality, and Disrespect: Tosan Boyo’s Blueprint for a Successful Equity Journey in Healthcare
• CCI: Racial Inequities in Health Care: What is Holding Us Back?
• American College of Physicians: What’s the benefit of patient, family engagement?
• Association of State and Territorial Health Officials: The Economic Case for Health Equity
• Baker Institute:  Just Medicine: A Cure for Racial Inequality in U.S. Health Care

© 2021 Center for Care Innovations. All Rights Reserved.

We've been talking a lot about "design thinking" on this podcast lately. Now, it's your chance to get involved in Catalyst, our award-winning training program that teaches an approach to problem solving that is rooted in understanding people’s needs and experiences. Learn about the application process, building new mindsets, and how you can contribute to the future of community health. 

Here’s where you can learn more about the people, places, and ideas in this episode: 

• Catalyst, CCI’s design thinking training program
• Applications will open on October 6, 2021 at careinnovations.org. The deadline to apply is Nov. 19, 2021.
• Using Design Thinking to Prescribe Food as Medicine

© 2021 Center for Care Innovations. All Rights Reserved.