Candid Conversation on Health Equity and Challenges to Rural Healthcare

Healthcare systems all over the U.S.—indeed, throughout most of the world—are struggling to reorient from healthcare alone to the production of health itself, including closing gaps in health equity. https://www.dartmouth-hitchcock.org/s... Dartmouth Health’s CEO and president, Joanne M. Conroy, MD, will be joined by Donald M. Berwick, MD, MPP, former administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on this “Connect with the CEO”. Conroy and Berwick will discuss health equity, barriers to access in rural healthcare, and the challenging political determinants of health. Berwick was appointed to lead CMS during President Barack Obama’s administration. Berwick is currently a lecturer in healthcare policy at Harvard Medical School, and is president emeritus and a senior fellow at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. A pediatrician by training, Berwick is internationally recognized as a leading authority on healthcare quality and improvement. He served two terms on the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) Governing Council, was a member of the IOM’s Global Health Board, and served on President Bill Clinton’s Advisory Commission on Consumer Protection and Quality in the Healthcare Industry. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II knighted Berwick in 2005 in recognition of his work with the British National Health Service. Berwick joins Conroy for “Connect with the CEO” on National Rural Health Day. As the leader of one of the most rural academic medical systems in the United States, Conroy shares a passion with Berwick for improving health equity in America’s most rural communities. “Healthcare systems all over the U.S.—indeed, throughout most of the world—are struggling to reorient from healthcare alone to the production of health itself, including closing gaps in health equity,” Berwick said. “Dartmouth Health is uniquely situated, by history, geography and capability, to show how that can be done. I am pleased to be able to join my many friends at Dartmouth Health for this important exploration.” Dartmouth Health, New Hampshire's only academic health system and the state's largest private employer, serves patients across northern New England. Dartmouth Health provides access to more than 2,000 providers in almost every area of medicine, delivering care at its flagship hospital, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) in Lebanon, NH, as well as across its wide network of hospitals, clinics and care facilities. DHMC is consistently named the #1 hospital in New Hampshire by U.S. News & World Report, and recognized for high performance in numerous clinical specialties and procedures. Dartmouth Health includes its Dartmouth Cancer Center, one of only 51 National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers in the nation, and the only such center in northern New England; Dartmouth Health Children’s, including the Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, the state’s only children’s hospital and clinic locations around the region; member hospitals in Lebanon, Keene and New London, NH, and Windsor, VT, and Visiting Nurse and Hospice for Vermont and New Hampshire; and more than 24 clinics that provide ambulatory services across New Hampshire and Vermont. Through its historical partnership with Dartmouth and the Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth Health trains nearly 400 medical residents and fellows annually, and performs cutting-edge research and clinical trials recognized across the globe with Geisel and the White River Junction VA Medical Center in White River Junction, VT. Dartmouth Health and its more than 13,000 employees are deeply committed to serving the healthcare needs of everyone in our communities, and to providing each of our patients with exceptional, personal care. Learn more at https://www.dartmouth-health.org/.