HIT Like a Girl Pod: Empowering Women in Health IT

In this episode of the HIT Like A Girl podcast, host Joy Rios speaks with Becky Payne, President and CEO of the Rippel Foundation. Rippel's mission is to create a world where all people can thrive in all places with no exceptions, and they focus on exploring action learning cycles and supporting communities and hospital systems in addressing social determinants of health. Becky discusses Rippel's framework called the Vital Conditions for Health and Well-being, which brings together all the sectors in a community to address these determinants, including transportation, housing, economic engines, health, wellness, lifelong learning, employment, meaningful work, and wealth.

Joy and Becky also touch on the impact of climate change on health and well-being, including the recent storms and droughts on the California West Coast. Becky notes that investing in resilience and strength-building in communities is critical to quickening the cycle of responding to crises, and requires hard conversations about the legacies of injustice that have created disparities in well-being. Overall, the episode highlights the importance of looking beyond the healthcare system itself to address the broader factors that impact health and well-being.

In this episode Joy features Natalie Davis, CEO and co-founder of United States of Care. The organization focuses on understanding people's healthcare needs by listening to them. They have identified four things people want: affordable healthcare, dependable coverage, personalized care, and easy navigation. Natalie emphasizes the importance of implementation and shares how their work is built on listening and talking to experts to find out what's working and what's not. United States of Care emphasizes the importance of using people's experiences and needs to inform policy decisions.

In this episode, Joy is joined by Mio Akasako, Head of Brand and Design and David Stein Founder at Ash Wellness, to discuss their company's mission of providing at-home diagnostic testing to make healthcare more inclusive and accessible.

The episode addresses the recent anti-LGBTQ laws passed in Tennessee, including the drag ban and gender-affirming care ban, and how it affects the healthcare industry. Mio explains the importance of standing up for the LGBTQ community and how Ash Wellness is providing a platform for healthcare organizations to deliver care into the home. The episode also touches on the challenges of finding the right provider, especially for members of the LGBTQ community who may face stigma and judgment.

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In this episode of the HIT Like A Girl podcast, Joy sits down with Roopan Gill, co-founder and executive director of Vitala Global, a Canadian not-for-profit organization that co-creates digital platforms for women and girls living in challenging countries with highly stigmatized issues around sexual and reproductive health. Gill, who is also an obstetrician gynecologist based out of Toronto, talks about the legal and political challenges of providing abortion-related information and care in Venezuela, which is a legally restrictive setting. She discusses how Vitala Global's digital abortion companion app, Aya Contigo, provides support and information to Venezuelan women seeking safe abortion care. Gill also shares how Vitala Global is working to bring the app to LatinX folks and BIPOC communities in the United States and other countries within Latin America.

On this episode of HITea With Grace, we are pleased to have Rebecca Gwilt and Carrie Nixon join us to speak on the intersection of healthcare technology policy and law. Rebecca and Carrie are very interested in industry innovations happening in the metaverse and how it will change the paradigm of how we see and receive healthcare. That said, there will be many legal, logistical, and policy considerations to see this innovation to fruition. These women are up for the task! Additionally, Rebecca and Carrie share with us a new trend of how global healthcare innovation companies are working to establish themselves in the US and the challenges associated with understanding US corporate law. Listen in!

In this episode of the HIT Like A Girl podcast, Joy talks to Dr. Shikha Jain, a medical oncologist at the University of Illinois in Chicago, who wears multiple hats in the healthcare space. Dr. Jain shares her involvement in two non-profit organizations, Women in Medicine, and Impact. She discusses the Women in Medicine Summit, which she started five years ago, with the aim of closing the gender gap in healthcare and creating a more equitable healthcare system. Dr. Jain also talks about the Impact organization that focuses on public health messaging and addressing misinformation and disinformation during the pandemic.

In this episode of the HIT Like a Girl podcast, Joy welcomes Kelly Athman, Senior Director of Medical Affairs at InformedDNA and a clinical genetic counselor. Kelly explains the intersection of psychology and biology in her work and how she counsels patients in different settings, such as pediatrics, oncology, and reproductive clinics. Joy and Kelly discuss how genetic testing can provide valuable information early in life, such as through newborn screening, and how it can be a matter of life and death in some cases. Kelly shares her expertise on the benefits and limitations of genetic testing and how it can help individuals make informed decisions about their healthcare. Overall, this episode provides insight into the complex and important field of genetic counseling in healthcare.

In this episode of the HIT Like A Girl podcast, Joy Rios welcomes Kelly Bliss, the President of US Group Health at Teladoc Health, to discuss virtual care and its growing importance in the healthcare industry. With over 80 million eligible members, Teladoc Health provides virtual care services across the globe for a variety of clinical use cases. They offer virtual primary care and touch on a range of opportunities to intervene in someone's health, including chronic disease management, patient monitoring, mental health, nutrition, and dermatology. Bliss also explains the role of third party administrators (TPAs) in healthcare and how Teladoc Health works with payers, employers, and providers to strategize around virtual care.

In this episode Joy sits down with Cynthia Church, Chief Strategy Officer of Xealth, and Christine Slocumb, President of ClarityQuest Marketing, about how technology and marketing intersect in healthcare. Church explains how Xealth's digital health implementation platform bridges the gap between the EHR and the patient's consumer technology to provide relevant information where patients want it. The conversation also touches on the importance of storytelling in healthcare communication and how EHR data can provide valuable demographic information to marketers.

Joy sits down with Kat McDavitt, Jaime Bland, and Mandira Singh, who discuss a maternal health program in North Omaha. The program is a collaboration between Cync Health RI, Innsena, and PointClickCare, aimed at improving maternal health outcomes in vulnerable populations across Nebraska. North Omaha was chosen as the first site because it has a predominantly African American population. The program involves using Health Information Exchange technology, and information sharing to connect providers and people for early notification and comprehensive information to impact maternal-child outcomes. The program will start with a few clinics and eventually expand to the whole state of Nebraska.