Conversations with Health Equity Champions
The Root of the Issue shares the personal and professional journeys of nationally recognized health equity advocates and their work to end disparities in access to healthcare and basic needs in America. Our podcast provides inspiration to become involved in our collective quest for health equity and offers common sense solutions to the underlying injustices that prevent all Americans from living a life of health and well-being.
Brian Peters, CEO of Michigan Health and Hospital Association (MHA), and Laura Appel, Executive Vice President of Government Relations and Public Policy for MHA, join host Barbara Petee to discuss the role of the Association in addressing the social determinants of health, as well as how hospitals and health systems throughout the state of Michigan are tackling these issue to ensure wholistic and appropriate healthcare for all whom they are privileged to serve.
Peters says, “...at the end of the day, when we talk about these challenges, including challenges of social determinants of health and health equity, I think that the first issue is sunlight. Sunlight, meaning we recognize the issue and we can focus attention on it. Sunlight is the best disinfectant -- as you've heard. And by focusing on the issues and rallying people around it, combined with this constant evolution in our level of understanding and technology, we are going to continue this long term path towards an improved healthcare infrastructure. And the MHA is going to be a part of that journey. No question about it. And that excites me.”
Appel adds, “...we didn't know about this yesterday, but every day we get better at this. And that's how I feel about all of the things that we're working on. As many reasons you could have to … despair, every day we're going to get better at this.”