Speakers Who’ll Change How You Think About Health Equity

March 20, 2023 · Andy Reynolds

Many people decry health care inequities—but far fewer see and attack the problem in ways that get results.

You’ll see three such people as keynote speakers at Quality Talks on May 3. These leaders highlight and humanize quality priorities, and their presentations are sure to be provocative.

Inequity as a (Mis)Information Problem

Where do people learn about their health, and how accurate is what they think they know?

Arguably, no population health executive has greater sway over equitable access to evidence-based information than Dr. Garth Graham, global head of health care and public health at Google/YouTube.

Garth Graham, MD
Director and Global Head of Healthcare and Public Health
Google/YouTube

Garth’s in charge of charge of rooting out and replacing health misinformation with vetted science on YouTube. It’s a big job, with an almost incomprehensible reach: Since you started reading this sentence, roughly 2,000 people logged onto the platform.

Garth rejects the idea that the internet poses a challenge to public health. “I see opportunity. Online is where people are. We need to be where the community is. We have to pull out the weeds and pull out the misinformation. But then we need to plant the correct information.”

To learn how improving health equity starts with ensuring equitable access to accurate facts, hear—and meet—Garth at Quality Talks.

Racism: A Behavioral Health Problem?

Psychiatrist Nzinga Harrison defines addiction as “continued behavior despite negative consequences.”

Nzinga Harrison, MD
Co-Founder & Chief Medical Officer
Eleanor Health

Based on that definition, she counts racism as an addiction. And she’s convinced that racism can be treated—similar to how she and her colleagues at Eleanor Health treat patients addicted to drugs and alcohol.

“All of our life experiences get coded into electrical and chemical and hormonal signals in our bodies. You can draw a direct line from racism and oppression to substance use disorders,” she says.

She’s convinced fee-for-service medicine perpetuates inequity. Most of what drives health, she says, “sits outside the doctor’s office.” This includes social determinants of health and patients’ sense of meaning and purpose. Fee-for-service doesn’t pay for care that considers those needs, which consequently go unaddressed.

For the chance to see behavioral health in new ways that enhance health equity, you’ll be glad you heard—and met—Nzinga at Quality Talks.

Intersectionality and Incarceration

Dr. Anita Ravi, CEO and co-founder of PurpLE Health Foundation, bult a Federally Qualified Health Center inside the notorious Rikers Island women’s prison in New York.

Anita Ravi, MD, MPH, MSHP, FAAFP
CEO & Co-Founder
PurpLE Health Foundation

She sees health equity through the eyes of the incarcerated, survivors of domestic abuse and people who have been trafficked.

She teaches her fellow physicians to notice subtle signs of domestic abuse that regular medical exams might miss. And she tackles tough questions: What does continuity of care look like for someone who’s been trafficked? How do you build trust with someone whose own family harmed or prostituted them?

Anita works in some of the darkest corners of the country, and confronts the worst things people do to each other—yet she radiates a warmth and optimism that compels and inspires.

You’ll never think about health and care for marginalized people the same way after you meet Anita.

Quality Talks: Plan to Attend

Now in its eighth year, Quality Talks has earned a reputation as anything but ordinary. Deliberately different, the event features speakers with something new and different to say.

NCQA will present Quality Talks to an in-person audience at the Capital Hilton in Washington, DC, on May 3 from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Attend in person for:

• Unmatched networking opportunities with speakers and attendees.
• Access to recordings of all speakers after the event.
• Access to a VIP experience (limited capacity).

Key parts of Quality Talks are also available online—but there’s nothing like attending in person!

Either way, you won’t want to miss our speakers.

Register for Quality Talks today.