Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Advancing Whole Child Health and Early Intervention with Dr. Patrice Harris

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Advancing Whole Child Health and Early Intervention with Dr. Patrice Harris · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:50
  - This is Scott Becker with the Beckers HealthCare
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  - podcast.
• 0:54
  - I'm thrilled today to be joined by a
• 0:56
  - tremendous leader. We're joined today by Patrice Harris,
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  - doctor Patrice Harris. Doctor Harris is the executive
• 1:03
  - vice president
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  - and chief health impact officer at Nemours Children's
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  - Health.
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  - Nemours Children's Health is one of the most
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  - magnificent
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  - pediatric health systems in the country.
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  - Doctor Harris, so thrilled to be joined by
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  - you today. Can you take a moment and
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  - tell us a little bit about both yourself
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  - and about Nemours Children's Health?
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  - Absolutely. And thank you for having me. I
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  - am doctor Patrice Harris. As you noted, I
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  - am a child and adolescent
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  - psychiatrist,
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  - pediatric
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  - psychiatrist
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  - by training.
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  - I
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  - have a long and varied career
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  - from private practice to working now in this
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  - large health system.
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  - I've been focused on individual care, population health,
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  - public health,
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  - and health care policy. And I
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  - feel like... And I have the wonderful opportunity
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  - to bring that all together
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  - in this opportunity
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  - at Nemours.
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  - And and take a second. You also served
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  - as the presence of the American Medical Association.
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  - So you've had this incredible impact in a
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  - lot of different places. Congratulations.
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  - Talk about
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  - what you're most focused on and excited about
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  - it in Morse Children's Health.
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  - So I'm most excited, of course, as a
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  - pediatric
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  - psychiatrist,
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  - the work that's going on regarding what we
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  - call whole child health.
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  - I think all of us realize that about
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  - 80%
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  - of what impacts anyone's health, but here we
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  - are focused on children,
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  - takes place where they live, work, and play
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  - outside
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  - the walls of doctors, offices, clinics, and hospitals.
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  - And Moores has made the commitment
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  - to not only, of course,
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  - offer stellar and
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  - excellent care
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  - inside our walls, but also focus with partners
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  - outside of our walls to address
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  - some of those other,
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  - issues
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  - around,
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  - housing stability,
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  - economic,
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  - development,
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  - healthy and fresh
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  - nutritious
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  - foods. And so
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  - that is a core concept of the work
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  - of Nemours regarding whole child health. And I'm
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  - even more... So I'm very excited about that.
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  - Even more excited about a signature focus on
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  - kindergarten readiness.
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  - Because if you talk about upstream,
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  - that is upstream.
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  - So much of
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  - what happens to children again happens in those
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  - first five years, and we know it's very
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  - important for children to come to school ready
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  - to learn.
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  - And so a signature focus
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  - of Nemours
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  - is that,
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  - early childhood
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  - lifespan
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  - investment,
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  - making sure they are healthy and ready to
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  - learn, by the way, and not just whether
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  - they know their ABCs and one, two, thirties,
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  - the literacy part. That's important.
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  - But the other critical components, again, being healthy,
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  - emotional regulation,
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  - social
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  - skills. So I'm most excited about that work,
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  - that is going on at Nemours.
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  - And and talk for a second. The leadership
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  - of yourself,
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  - the leadership of doctor Moss,
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  - it sounds so much like this thought process.
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  - The whole child
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  - trying to make sure people are ready to
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  - be
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  - ready for school, ready for kindergarten, ready to
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  - go
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  - seems so much the the the sort of
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  - fabric
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  - of what you're trying to do at Nemours.
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  - Is it a fair sense of how Nemours
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  - is looking at things, which is so different
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  - than so many other health systems and and
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  - so, I think, fascinating and so positive?
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  - How much is that the fabric of what
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  - you're trying to do at Nemours?
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  - It is absolutely the fabric. I I would
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  - say it's woven into the DNA of Nemours,
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  - this commitment. And listen, this is not new
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  - information. We... We've known for years, of course,
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  - that we we, the royal we, this country,
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  - you know, broader than even the health care,
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  - ecosystem or the health ecosystem, I like to
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  - say, because it's...
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  - Health care is important. And, ultimately,
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  - at the at the end of the day,
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  - we want folks, to be healthy, but it
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  - is woven into the the DNA and the
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  - commitment. Right? And and, again, not a new
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  - concept, but what I,
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  - see at Nemours. And by the way,
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  - I am just completing my first sixty days.
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  - I started August 3. But what made me
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  - so,
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  - so interested and excited about,
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  - coming to Nemours was this work is at
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  - the core
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  - and the commitment of leadership. You mentioned doctor
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  - Moss. He,
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  - is passionate about this commitment of of leadership
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  - all across,
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  - the system at Nemours,
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  - to really,
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  - put into action. Right? We... We've all known
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  - that we need to do this, but,
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  - you know, it's it's difficult
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  - in the health care environment sometimes to make
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  - change. It's a it's a big complicated,
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  - system, but Nemours is committed,
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  - to that and committed to this different way
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  - of thinking. And what Nemours wants to do
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  - is learn. We're early in this. We want
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  - to learn, test,
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  - measure
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  - what works, what doesn't work, and then we
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  - wanted to scope and scale. We want every
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  - system, and we'll say pediatric,
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  - system, but, really,
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  - systems across,
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  - this country to to think about, and we
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  - wanna be a model,
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  - for thinking in this way, whole child health
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  - and early early intervention.
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  - You... You've had this incredible
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  - leadership career,
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  - both
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  - psychiatrist
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  - and we're so short psychiatrists in our country,
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  - leadership at one of the most prestigious
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  - medical societies in the world,
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  - now chief health impact officer at a great
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  - system.
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  - What advice would you give to evolving leaders
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  - about leadership or about career development?
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  - Any thoughts you'd share with others trying to
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  - follow such a great path?
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  - Absolutely.
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  - Because,
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  - I've had the wonderful opportunity and privilege,
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  - to
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  - have
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  - multiple leadership roles in different venues. And, you
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  - know, the year that I was president of
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  - the American Medical associate... Association
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  - happened to be during COVID.
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  - But the night I was inaugurated,
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  - of course, we had a ceremony, and I
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  - had a line from one of my
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  - favorite poems about leadership on my program.
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  - And I'll paraphrase, but it just notes that
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  - leadership can sometimes be lonely.
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  - Often leaders stand in that lonely place
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  - between the no longer and the not yet.
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  - But
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  - though it may be lonely and hard sometimes,
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  - at the end of the day, it's an
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  - opportunity to
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  - drive
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  - innovation,
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  - create history, forge new ground. And so, you
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  - know, in addition to my work at Nemours,
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  - that's why I've been so excited about participating
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  - on the
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  - National Commission on
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  - Public Health because public health
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  - may seem
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  - abstract and sometimes may seem invisible,
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  - but it's really about the day to day.
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  - Do I have clean water? Do I have
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  - clean air? Is my community health and
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  - and and safe... Healthy and and and safe?
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  - And I, again,
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  - think that, there's so many ties to public
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  - health work and and work we're doing at,
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  - Nemours upstream that I'm I'm very excited to
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  - have had these opportunities. So to leaders, I
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  - say it's sometimes lonely,
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  - well worth
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  - it. Take the opportunity
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  - and create and bind
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  - and forge history.
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  - I I just love that. And and doctor
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  - Harris,
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  - anything else? I think that's so inspiring, and
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  - I love that. And And I have a
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  - daughter that's in a public health, so I
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  - just love that. Talk for a second about
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  - anything else that you're particularly watching currently, trends
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  - you're watching, or since you'd like to share
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  - with the audience today?
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  - Well, as you know, and the audience is
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  - aware, there's so much going on in health
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  - care right now. And and I would say
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  - that... I like to sort of think broadly.
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  - And I would say
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  - transformation
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  - sums up what's going on. Right? New medications,
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  - new therapy. How are we going to use
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  - technology? So transformation,
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  - making sure we are having informed conversations about,
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  - transformation. And again,
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  - two issues of public health. We need to
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  - make sure that, our local leaders, you know,
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  - the... Where the rubber
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  - meets the road is at the local level,
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  - state and local level. So it's about
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  - having those conversations
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  - about what we need to do to transform
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  - maybe the way we talk about things. We
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  - test things at the local level when it
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  - comes to public health. And then on the
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  - Namor side transformation into
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  - how we think about ensuring that the next
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  - and future generations of children
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  - are the healthiest
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  - they can be. Because, listen, healthy children
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  - become healthy adults,
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  - and that inures to the benefit of society.
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  - So whether we're talking about public health and
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  - what we need to do to ensure that
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  - communities are thriving and safe so that individuals...
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  - Again, I'm a pediatric psychiatrist and at Nemours,
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  - we focus on children
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  - so that children have the thriving healthy communities
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  - they need
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  - and that we can work in partnership again
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  - to create the next generation of children that
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  - is healthier.
• 11:02
  - Thank you. I did... I just love that.
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  - Doctor Harris, what a pleasure to visit with
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  - you. I love the work that Nemours Children's
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  - is doing.
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  - Tremendous leadership.
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  - So lucky to have you aboard helping to
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  - lead there. Thank you for joining us today
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  - on the Becker's Healthcare podcast. Thank you very
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  - much. Thank you for having me.