Tag Archives: health equity

We got our shot!

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My husband and I got our first dose vaccine shot on Saturday. And yes, there is a sense of relief to be at this point a year after it all started.

March 5, 2020 feels like the last normal day for me. I had lunch in a restaurant with my daughter who is an NP at a Boston hospital. I was anxiously waiting to hear that HIMSS20 would be cancelled and wondered what they were waiting for. I discussed the risks of going with my daughter. I decided during that conversation not to go even if they held it (I got the cancellation notice as we were leaving the restaurant). I asked her about the Coronavirus from a clinical perspective. She said we’re “f’d” and projected 100,000 cases in the U.S. by April 1st. We now know it was to be far worse.

As a frontline healthcare worker, she was fully vaccinated by early January. Two weeks ago, she helped about fifteen of her husband’s 65 years and older family members and their friends navigate the somewhat confusing multiple websites in Massachusetts to schedule first dose appointments.

Here is my Rhode Island story. The vaccination site was a junior high in our town. Overall, it was a smooth process. When we pulled into the parking lot there was a sign that said wait in your car until 5 minutes before your appointment to avoid people crowding at the door. Our town Mayor was there working – that was a pleasant surprise. He took temperatures and asked initial screening questions at the door. I greeted him and commented on the fact that he was working – his somewhat joking reply was, “I have to earn my keep”.

Next, we went to the “check in” table. We gave them our IDs and they looked us up on the list of people scheduled for an appointment that day. The list was in no sort order, so it took a while. We then moved into the gymnasium where there were about eight vaccine stations. Firefighters and EMTs gave the actual shots. My husband was considered to have moderate risk of a reaction, so his PCP advised him to stay for 30-minute observation. When he shared that information, a physician was called over to ask him a few questions before he got the shot.

With information on how to sign up for the CDC’s v-safe app (after vaccination health checker), and our vaccination cards in hand we went to the observation area with many seats set up socially distanced. There were several people wandering around the area offering to help you make your second appointment or you could just use the QR code they provided on posters visible on the backs of the chair in front of you to sign up for 4 weeks out.

If you know me well, you know that I always have an eye out for process improvements. Continue reading →

What is a “Digital Dog”?

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My colleague, David Muntz, coined the term “digital dog” this week when he described to our StarBridge Advisors team how my two little dogs are so well informed as they walk with me every day while I listen to podcasts. I loved the term and the image!

There is so much great content to listen to. I sometimes feel like my little dogs with their short legs trying to keep up with me as I try to keep up with my two favorite podcasts – This Week in Health IT and In the Bubble. Yes, I subscribe to many more, but these are the top two that I keep up with best I can.

This Week in Health IT is three different weekly shows (each approximately 45 minutes long) – Newsday (Monday), Solution Showcase (Wednesday), and Influencers (Friday). And starting this year Bill Russell decided his audience could benefit from another option so he launched a daily news show on a separate channel – Today in Health IT (shorter at 8-10 minutes each).

I agreed to be one of the rotating co-hosts on Newsday this year. My second episode with Bill was this week – Newsday – Drive-Thru Vaccine Distribution, Reaching the Marginalized, and CIO Priorities. The first topic we covered was the UC Health Mass Vaccination Playbook – a comprehensive resource that is worth downloading. Even if you are already doing similar mass vaccine sites, I am sure there is something to learn from their playbook to refine and improve your own operation. Best practice sharing is what we do in healthcare! Check out the podcast to hear all the stories we discussed.

So that’s my plug for the best podcast series to keep up with what’s happening in health IT.

Turning to my other top podcast, In the Bubble. This is how I stay educated on COVID-19 and all things related. Continue reading →

8 health experts to follow

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In past years, I’ve used the end of the year mark as a way to highlight my most read blogs of the year and encourage you to check them out if you missed them. But who cares about my most read blogs? Instead, I want to amplify the voices of health experts who have educated us throughout this pandemic and who will continue to for many months to come. If you aren’t already following them on social media or listening to their podcasts, I encourage you to do so. They are often interviewed on the major news programs.

Trusting the science, knowing the facts, and maintaining objectivity are critical for all of us to do our part and get safely to the other side of this pandemic.

Here are the experts I recommend you follow in alphabetical order:

Esther Choo, MD, MPH, Co-Founder, Equity Quotient, is an emergency physician and professor at the Oregon Health & Science University. She has been speaking from the front lines of the pandemic since the beginning. She did a podcast series called Doctors’s Log – A Covid-19 Journal in the early months of the pandemic. Twitter: @choo_ek

Laurie Garrett is a Pulitzer Prize winning science journalist and author of several books including “The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance” and “Betrayal of Trust: The Collapse of Global Public Health”. In 2007, she did a TED talk “Lessons from the 1918 Flu”.  Twitter: @Laurie_Garrett

Ashish Jha, MD, MPH, is an internationally respected expert on pandemic response and preparedness. He recently left his position as faculty director of the Harvard Global Health Institute and became dean of the Brown University School of Public Health.  His recent interview on In the Bubble with Andy Slavitt, “The Next Three Stages of COVID-19”, is worth checking out. And as I just learned, he also has his own podcast series, “COVID: What Comes Next”. He is a frequent contributor on all the major news outlets. Twitter: @ashishkjha

Vivek Murthy, MD, MBA, has been nominated as the next U.S. Surgeon General, a role he also served in during the Obama Administration.  He is the co-chair of the Biden COVID Task Force. His recent interview on in the Bubble with Andy Slavitt, “Inside the Biden COVID Task Force”, is worth checking out. Twitter: @vivek_murthy

Michael Osterholm, MS, MPH, PhD, is the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) at the University of Minnesota and is a world-renowned epidemiologist who has spent his career investigating outbreaks. He is a member of the Biden COVID Task Force. Continue reading →

At the intersection of racism and healthcare

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It has been two weeks since George Floyd was murdered by police in Minneapolis. Since then, millions of people have joined protests in major cities and small rural towns around the world to make their voices heard. They have said enough is enough, racism must end and real change is needed.

When the protests end and our national focus begins to shift, we can not go back to business as usual. The statements of support and solidarity made by so many these past two weeks must turn into action.

At the local, state, and federal level we must hold our government leaders accountable for change and exercise our right to vote for those committed to change. With the focus on police brutality, we are beginning to hear some major cities announce planned changes in policing. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has introduced his “Say Their Name” agenda to reform policing in New York state. House and Senate Democrats have introduced the Justice in Policing Act.

In recent days, we have seen many “white coat” rallies as well – White Coats for Black Lives. My social media feeds are filled with pictures and stories of hospital staff rallies – many of them organized by the residents. Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, UMass Memorial in Worcester, Massachusetts, and Henry Ford Health System in Detroit were just a few of them. And these are hospitals who saw thousands of COVID-19 patients in recent months. Truly our healthcare heroes.

In 2014, after Michael Brown was shot by police in Ferguson, we saw similar support. Students at 70 medical schools around the country organized a national white coat die-in saying it was an “important time for medical institutions to respond to the violence and race-related trauma that affect our communities and the patients we serve”. They lay down for fifteen and a half minutes. Eleven minutes to represent the number of times that Eric Garner said “I can’t breathe” as he was in a choke hold by police in New York City and four and a half minutes to represent the four and a half hours that Michael Brown’s body lay in the street after being shot by a police officer. And yet here we are in 2020.

These hospital staff rallies along with the many statements of support from hospital and health system CEOs are an important show of support but we also need action and attention to health disparities. I want to share two heartfelt CEO statements that were the most impactful for me. They are from healthcare leaders I have worked with and greatly respect. Continue reading →