Dr. Lisa Cooper, MD, MPH Speaks with Accolade About Health Equity

Earlier this year, Accolade, a health benefits advisory company, hosted a health equity webinar entitled “Advancing Health Equity in Employee Benefits,” featuring Center for Health Equity Director Dr. Lisa Cooper, MD, MPH and Accolade Chief Medical Officer Dr. Shantanu Nundy. In this hour-long webinar, Drs. Cooper and Nundy explored the ways in which employee benefits can impact health equity outcomes and how HR leaders can take steps to help reduce health disparities for their workforce.

Accolade is an organization that brings together advisors, clinical expertise, and technology, to provide employees and their families trusted, personalized support for their health and benefits questions, needs, and experiences. They also partner with employers to support the fostering of healthy populations and effective benefits programs. Accolade utilizes artificial intelligence to anticipate a person’s needs and guide them to the specific benefits and care options that can best help them achieve physical, emotional, and financial health and well-being.

As part of their mission to empower people to make the best decisions for their health and well-being, Accolade provides a variety of resources for individuals and organizations, including a webinar series that covers a broad range of topics related to healthcare. Dr. Cooper was invited to speak on the topic of health equity and to discuss how employee benefits can play a role in alleviating health disparities.

In this webinar, Drs. Cooper and Nundy discussed what they refer to as the “Quintuple Aim,” a healthcare framework that builds upon the “Triple Aim” framework first proposed by Berwick, et al. in 2008. The “Triple Aim” framework focused on improving population health, enhancing the care experience, and reducing costs. In their recent JAMA Viewpoint article, “The Quintuple Aim for Health Care Improvement: A New Imperative to Advance Health Equity,” Drs. Nundy, Cooper, and Mate proposed adding both a fourth aim of workforce well-being and safety and a fifth aim of advancing health equity.

Dr. Cooper stated that “health equity is our ‘North Star’ – it is something that we all want to attain one day…but we know that that is something that may be a long time coming.” Dr. Cooper pointed to health disparities as the measurable differences that can indicate whether progress is being made towards health equity. The remainder of the webinar focused on the ways in which organizations can provide access to resources that can help reduce health disparities and empower physicians and patients to achieve the best results possible.

Dr. Cooper will be participating in an upcoming Accolade webinar on Thursday, August 18 entitled “Advance Health Equity Through Your Employee Benefits: Ensure Your Benefits Lead to Equitable Care.” There will be various time slots available, so register now to secure the time that works best for you. Learn more and register at Advancing Health Equity in Employee Benefits | HR Morning.