Personalized care for specific patient populations enhances women’s health outcomes

Derek van Amerongen, MD, MSc: If each of you could share a piece of advice or two with your listeners about cervical and breast cancer and their role and how they interact with racial disparity, what would it be?

Soini Hawkins, MD, MPH, FACOG: On cervical and breast cancer, I would like to encourage listeners, who will also be diverse like this panel, to consider ways to individualize their approach to these women’s populations as a whole. think. . Specifically, it is not that they are simply underserved, poor or uneducated, but that their cultural make-up is unique. We know, genetically, that we are more alike than we are different, but when it comes to crafting policies, or where to put research dollars, how to create educational brochures. There is a very important difference that can be explained when considering Patience. We can all agree that this is very important when it comes to looking at the gaps and bridging them, and that’s where the real differences will be seen, but we’re going to divide these groups into individual groups. should begin to be treated as a separate group of

Derek van Amerongen, MD, MSc: great advice. great insight.

Roxy Cannon Wells, Maryland: I think it’s about deliberately and deliberately looking at the disparities and actually observing what’s there. It’s easy to think that everything is going well and nothing is wrong. But we all know there are such beings. The pandemic has shed a bright light on just how. [big] The disparity is real. And when people listening to this conversation think seriously about acting intentionally and actually looking for disparities. And it’s not just about looking for gaps, taking data, and using that data to improve individual performance. As I have said before, as I said earlier, I do not think that medical expenses will go down unless measures to address disparities are started. Until we started addressing the social determinants of health. We have done all sorts of things to reduce healthcare costs. However, there are actually some people who get sick more often. They are dealing with this, what did you call it? Allostatic stress. And it contributes to their health. We really have to look for it carefully and purposefully. We need to think about our own biases and really work to get rid of them and move forward and help people achieve better outcomes.

Sharon Deans, MD, MPH, MBA: Agree 100% with all comments. I think cultural competence is essential. Understanding the way people walk and talk, and everyday American culture, and being able to meet them where they are is absolutely essential. And, as I said earlier, I wonder again if it is necessary to extract a subset when such a serious disease is found. Screening decisions are based on the number of people required to screen to make a single diagnosis. Should that be the case, to better understand gastrointestinal cancer in Asian patients and triple-negative breast cancer in African-American women? Huh? Population health says it’s very important to look at numbers, rural zip codes, urban zip codes, and understand who lives there and what the social determinants of that person’s health are. think. At the end of the signature at work is the words, “We are as wealthy as the healthiest people.” And that’s what we do on a daily basis, keeping track of the health of each individual in our community and making sure people are safe, accessible and understood when they get to their destination. is. But I think the biggest progress we’ve made over the years has been population health. We have great data that shows us and tells our story. I always tell my team what the data tells us and how it tells a different story. When it comes to quality, over the years there have been many initiatives and changes aimed at improving healthcare. Quality is one, but it’s just a touch. I want a fulfilling program involving all the members. Once they are discharged from the hospital, return them to the community. How do you keep it there? Connect them to culturally competent community-based organizations. What can I cook if I have diabetes? Because my family will tease me if I eat differently. How do you cook to make something that’s as healthy for you and your family as everyone else is eating? How do you take that message? think. I think it’s very important to kind of invert the subsets and take out a specific subset and see if, like you said, we should be screening for colon cancer more often. And a snapshot of the health status of the population as a whole is very important.

Soini Hawkins, MD, MPH, FACOG: And don’t forget to close the circle. All of these have to be measurable outcomes, and we can go back and say, this is our idea, our thought, this is what we want to implement, did it work, or do we need to start over? .

Sharon Deans, MD, MPH, MBA: that’s right. And the other, I think, is a forum like this. Bring all the different players to the table. clinicians, systems, payers, community-based organizations, and nations. The state code is the federal state code, as stated in the policy. And I always tell my team that this is going to stack up. We are trying to talk about macro policy. We may not touch it ourselves, but the work we do speaks for itself, and we strive to achieve policies that represent more equality and health equity. increase.

I edited the transcript for clarity.