[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The In Full Health (IFH) initiative, which is rooted in the American Medical Association’s strategic plan to embed racial justice and advance health equity, is a community of people committed to advancing equitable health innovation. Every individual in the IFH community has something to offer, whether that be lived experiences, a respected platform, valued expertise — or all of the above.
Dr. Aletha Maybank (she/her/hers) is the Chief Health Equity Officer and Senior Vice President for the American Medical Association. In her role, Dr. Maybank focuses on embedding health equity across the organization and leading the Center for Health Equity.
Chelsea Hanson (she/her/hers) is the Director of Health Equity & Innovation within the Center for Health Equity. She is responsible for leading the Center’s work on the Ensure Equity in Innovation approach within the AMA’s strategic plan to embed racial justice and advance health equity.
Meg Barron (she/her/hers) is the Vice President of Digital Health Strategy & Innovations. She works with internal team members and external collaborators to help improve the quality of digital health technologies and is an executive sponsor and key collaborator for the Ensure Equity in Innovation approach and team.
In Full Health (IFH): Why does equity in health innovation matter? And why does it matter to you personally?
Dr. Aletha Maybank: From the very start, it was crystal clear that equity in health innovation needed to be a core focus of our work. With the founding of the Center for Health Equity, I found myself in new spaces with Black, Indigenous, and other health innovators of color from across the country who shared their experiences, visions, and models for ensuring equity and improving the health of our nation with me. And I saw data demonstrating significant opportunity for innovation to address health inequities when it is grounded in historically marginalized and minoritized communities and in values and visions of racial and social justice. These innovators really paved the way for this work at the AMA within our ensure equity in innovation approach.
I am personally moved by working in the community across the health, justice, and equity ecosystem — and centering the expertise and knowledge of partners, leaders, patients, and people from historically marginalized and minoritized communities. This includes within the health innovation space. We will not eliminate health inequities if we don’t embed equity in health innovation.
Chelsea Hanson: My desire to be part of a push for systemic change came from my experience co-founding and struggling to fundraise for a startup I founded in 2012 that was focused on providing access to affordable, healthy prepared meals as a social determinant of health, based on my experiences growing up in a low-income, single-parent household. That experience was book-ended with my time at a racial equity in tech focused-nonprofit and roles in two venture-backed health startups.
This set of experiences collectively shined a light on the pervasive exclusion and devaluing of historically marginalized communities by those controlling resources and funds in the innovation space — and helped me understand why we are failing to make meaningful progress in supporting the health of most people in this country.
As discussed in our In Full Health business case, our nation will have far greater potential for achieving full health when we allocate health innovation resources among a more diverse group of people and communities.
Meg Barron: Equity in health innovation means that those experiencing key problems and difficulties in health care have access — and resources — to create, and provide feedback on, the solutions.
IFH: In your own words, what is the purpose of the In Full Health initiative?
Chelsea Hanson: The purpose is to bring together people committed to advancing equity in health innovation, grounded in a shared understanding of the current state, set of values, and vision for the future so that we can push for change faster and more powerfully.
Meg Barron: Despite the energy for change from so many individuals and organizations, there is so much work to do to ensure health innovation addresses the needs and improves the health of all patients — particularly those who have been most marginalized.
To me, this is why In Full Health is so important. It allows for […] solution developers, physicians, patients, VCs, purchasers, and others across the ecosystem to come together to better design, test, and evaluate what is working and where there is room for improvement to address key needs.
Meg Barron
Vice President of Digital Health Strategy & Innovations, American Medical Association
IFH: How does your role support the In Full Health initiative?
Dr. Aletha Maybank: I help to leverage the resources and assets at the AMA for the IFH Initiative. This is all done with the goal to amplify business cases and investment strategies for the health care innovation sector to advance equity, convene leaders, and engage stakeholders to build collective expertise and share knowledge. It’s also to create a culture of innovation rooted in values of justice and equity.
Chelsea Hanson: I’ve had the honor and privilege of convening an incredible group of internal and external experts at the intersection of equity and innovation to co-create the In Full Health Principles for Equitable Health Innovation, business case, collaborator group, and platform for the learning and action community. We’ve worked together for over a year to co-write the foundational content, gather broader stakeholder and collaborator input, and align upon a strategy and approach for the launch of the In Full Health community.
Meg Barron: We work to collaborate and connect our efforts to the AMA’s Center for Health Equity strategic plan. Our team has the opportunity to lead initiatives such as the AMA Physician Innovation Network, a platform that connects the health care innovation ecosystem to improve the development of emerging health care technology solutions. Our goal is to make technology an asset and not a burden for patients and physicians.
SUBSCRIBE
Stay in the loop about new blog posts from equitable health innovation leaders, helpful resources and tools to help you bring the Principles to life, upcoming events, and more by joining our email list.
SUBSCRIBEIFH: One of the approaches laid out in the AMA’s strategic plan to embed racial justice and advance health equity is “Ensure equitable structures and opportunities in health innovation.” How do you see In Full Health supporting that?
Dr. Aletha Maybank: The In Full Health initiative was created in concert with the AMA’s Organizational Strategic Plan to Embed Racial Justice and Health Equity and, therefore, by design, advances the core goals of the Ensure Equity in Innovation approach. Specifically, the IFH Initiative provides a framework for shared understanding and a community for stakeholders committed to learning and action to center equity within their health innovation investment, development, and purchasing efforts.
This is accomplished by committing resources to innovations created by, with, and that measurably improve health and do no harm for Black, Latinx, Indigenous, communities of color, women, LGBTQ+ communities, people with disabilities, people with low income, rural communities, and other communities historically marginalized by the health industry.
Dr. Aletha Maybank, MD, MPH
Chief Health Equity Officer and Senior Vice President, American Medical Association
Chelsea Hanson: In alignment with our equity strategic plan, our intent is for AMA to live our values of sharing power and centering the voices of historically marginalized communities in how we engage with fellow collaborators and the broader community. In doing so, it’s also critical that we make transparent, measurable commitments that we hold ourselves accountable to in terms of where our own innovation dollars are going and who leads and is valued in decision-making for our innovation efforts.
We know that we are not alone in our stage of readiness for this effort — making it even more important that we humbly share our progress and learnings along the way.
IFH: The In Full Health Principles for Equitable Health Innovation give a very large community of players working across the health innovation ecosystem some shared language and vision for the future. Why is this important?
Dr. Aletha Maybank: The In Full Health Principles anchor the work and establish a culture of shared understanding and vision. They help and strengthen the collective power of community and support responsive engagement with and for innovation leaders and stakeholders.
Equity is as much a process as it is an outcome. These Principles were collectively developed with the AMA’s External Equity & Innovation Advisory Group, which was established to provide thought leadership, expert analysis, strategic guidance, and support for external stakeholder engagement and communication.
Chelsea Hanson: While these initial versions are meant to be a starting point upon which we hope the In Full Health community iterates and builds, it reflects the knowledge, data, and expertise of many folks across the health equity and innovation ecosystem — eliminating the need for folks and organizations to start from scratch.
Chelsea Hanson
Director of Health Equity & Innovation in the Center for Health Equity, American Medical Association
Meg Barron: The principles are also important because they help to provide guidance on how the industry can make deliberate improvements to address current inequities and work towards a shared goal.
IFH: What do you hope the In Full Health initiative achieves in the near term and long term? What would success look like to you and/or the AMA?
Dr. Aletha Maybank: We are excited to build from the momentum of our recent launch of the IFH initiative. During these next few years, we will focus on growing and building the capacity of the IFH community through access to experts, mentors, resources, and tools. We will facilitate space for community members to share lessons learned and challenges with each other, and to identify opportunities for collective action and policy change with systems influencers.
The hope is that we start to see concrete changes in the conversations, discourse, and investments across the health innovation ecosystem — changes that center on equity.
Chelsea Hanson: As we move forward in our work together with the 14 other founding In Full Health collaborator organizations, our AMA Center for Health Equity team is excited to build upon our initial draft logic model and co-create an evaluation plan that we’ll then share with the broader community for feedback.
In the near term, I hope to see indicators of a connected and vibrant IFH community infrastructure and the launch of IFH community efforts focused on systems change to ensure equitable opportunities in health innovation. I also hope to see an increase in awareness, knowledge, and competencies related to developing, investing, funding, and managing equitable health innovations.
In the longer term, I hope to see indicators of growth and sustainability of the IFH community and the impact of system change efforts coming from it as well as more innovations that advance health equity and/or developed by historically marginalized community members being resourced to achieve scalable impact.
Meg Barron: In Full Health provides a platform and ability for willing organizations — particularly those that fund, develop, influence, and purchase innovations in health care — to join forces, share learnings, and work towards a shared vision. I appreciate the goals that have been set for In Full Health focused on prioritizing resource allocation to launch and scale solutions that advance health equity and to work towards a future where the demographics of health innovators and investors mirror that of the patient population with needs to address.
My personal goal is to ensure our work contributes to these shared — and worthy — objectives. If achieved, there is tremendous opportunity to improve lives, as well as economics, in health care.
Dr. Aletha Maybank: For the long term, we envision a U.S. health innovation sector that prioritizes resource allocation to launch and scale solutions that meaningfully advance health equity and do no harm to historically marginalized communities, and in which the race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation and gender identity, ability status, and other demographics of health innovators and investors mirror that of our nation thereby enabling true wellbeing for all.
We want a future in which every person in our country is in full health. A future in which all of us are seen, heard, honored, valued, treated, and cared for in full.
SUBSCRIBE
Stay in the loop about new blog posts from equitable health innovation leaders, helpful resources and tools to help you bring the Principles to life, upcoming events, and more by joining our email list.
SUBSCRIBE