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Feature
NYS Health Foundation Awards Multi-Disciplinary Downstate Team $225k Health Equity
Grant!
It is with great pleasure that I share that a multi-disciplinary team—comprised of Downstate scientists and decision-makers from the Department of Family and Community Medicine, School of Public Health, Department of OB/GYN, College of Medicine, and University Hospital of Brooklyn's Office of Patient Relations, as well as leaders from the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health and One Brooklyn Health System— recently secured a $225k grant from the New York State Health Foundation (NYSHealth) in support of advancing health equity!
The team’s winning project “Designing a Health Equity Index to Improve the Patient Experience” was submitted in response to the NYSHealth’s Request for Proposal (RFP), “Patients as Partners: Advancing Equity”— an RFP designed to support projects that empower patients of color to be significantly
engaged in their healthcare via operational enhancements, new practice developments,
and clinical interventions.
Both NYSHealth and Downstate understand that in order to build a healthcare model
that advances equitable outcomes for all, patients (especially those in our most vulnerable
communities) need to be active participants in the care they receive in a system that
intentionally and strategically commands their engagement. As grantees, the Downstate
team will be focused on NYSHealth’s “Empowering Health Care Consumers” Priority Area
and, will design and implement an index that identifies, measures, and addresses racial
disparities within the patient experience across the continuum of care.
To accomplish this, Downstate partnered with One Brooklyn Health System (OBHS) and
the Arthur Ashe Institute. As the lead for the $1.4 billion NYS “Vital Brooklyn” initiative,
OBHS has an explicit mandate and commitment to transforming health in long neglected and underserved
Central/Northeast Brooklyn. In recently appointing Dr. Montgomery Douglas, Chair of Downstate’s Family and Community
Medicine Department, as Chief of Population Health Strategy at OBHS, the entities
have created an academic-clinical partnership dedicated to implementing innovative
approaches to health transformation in Central Brooklyn. The Arthur Ashe Institute
for Urban Health will bring to bear its deep expertise in community engagement to
the research phase of the project, ensuring that the voices of our community are heard.
Together with their partners, the Downstate team will tap the insights and engage
patients and community stakeholders to collaboratively develop and launch the Central and Northeast Brooklyn Health Equity Index—an advanced and “comprehensive patient survey tool” that gathers and aggregates critical
data absent from existing patient experience surveys, including data on discrimination,
implicit bias, medical mistrust, and patient safety.
This exciting project will not only serve to elevate the voice of our diverse patient
populations as partners in the care they receive, it also has the potential to advance
equitable care on behalf of impacted communities broadly, with hopes to expand and
implement the use of this tool across clinical and policy settings, nationally.
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Montgomery Douglas, M.D.
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Aimee Afable, Ph.D., MPH
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Carla Boutin-Foster, M.D., MS
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Christina Pardo, M.D., MPH, F.A.C.O.G.
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Wren Lester, Ph.D., CPXP, CPHQ
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Marilyn Fraser, M.D.
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CONGRATULATIONS to our entire interdisciplinary team for securing this important award
which will leave a lasting and meaningful effect on the communities we serve! I’d
like to extend my appreciation to Montgomery Douglas, M.D., Chair of the Department of Family & Community Medicine; Aimee Afable, Ph.D., MPH, Associate Dean for Community Engagement and Associate Professor of Community Health
Sciences in the School of Public Health; Carla Boutin-Foster, M.D., MS, Associate Dean in the College of Medicine's Office of Diversity Education and Research;
Christina Pardo, M.D., MPH, FACOG, Assistant Professor, Vice Chair of Quality & Innovation, Director of Diversity and
Health
Equity in the OB/GYN Department; Wren Lester Ph.D., CPXP, CPHQ, Chief Experience Officer; Marilyn Fraser, M.D., CEO of the Arthur Ashe Institute and Co-Director of the Brooklyn Health Disparities
Institute;
and our partners at One Brooklyn Health System.
 And a special THANK YOU to Nkiruka Nwokoye, JD, Administrator in the Department of Family and Community Medicine, for her lead role
in developing and coordinating the successful submission of the grant.
CLICK HERE to READ OFFICIAL RELEASE!
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Allen Lewis, Ph.D., CRC, Dean for the School of Health Professions, was recently invited to speak on the
topic of “Telerehabilitation: Benefits, What We Know, and Cautions,” at the University of Florida’s Rehabilitation Science Interdisciplinary Seminar Series.
Ni hao, Kamusta, Annyeonghaseyo, Aloha! May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, and this year, in honor and commemoration
of the Asian American and Pacific Islander community’s contributions to the sciences,
we recognize Dr. Lillian Chow, M.D.—Clinical Assistant Professor and Hospitalist at University Hospital of Brooklyn.
