Latest / 20-Minute Health Talk / How philanthropy is improving health equity

Transcript

How philanthropy is improving health equity · 20-Minute Health Talk

• 0:02
  Brian Lally: The federal government which is primary source of revenue for
• 0:06
  research doesn't like to fund brand-new things, they really like the
• 0:09
  fund things that they know it's going to work, which is a little bit of
• 0:12
  a conundrum, right?
• 0:13
  So how do you actually prove i? And you proved it with philanthropy.
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  It's not just the impact on the community.
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  It's the impact on research itself, so that we actually can get more
• 0:20
  funding to do more research.
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  Once we prove principle.
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  Host: Welcome to 20-minute Health talk.
• 0:32
  I'm your host Rob Hoell.
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  One of the biggest factors in determining a person's health is the
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  community in which they work live and play. Healthcare systems like
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  Northwell are investing in programs to address racial disparities in
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  health care access and outcomes and equip communities with the
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  resources they need to lead a healthy life.
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  To get their philanthropy
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  also plays a critical role.
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  Our guests today are each working toward that goal of Health Equity
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  Across all zip codes and will share their unique perspectives.
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  We have Brian Lally. He is the senior vice president and chief
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  development officer for Northwell Health leading, its foundation.
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  Brian Lally: Thanks Rob
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  Host: We Have Dr. Mark Butler.
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  He's an assistant investigator for the center for personalized Health
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  at the Feinstein.
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  Institutes for medical research and is leading a study using smart
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  prescription pill bottles to help address medication adherence, and
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  reduce cardiovascular disease in the black community.
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  Dr. Butler: Thank you again for supporting the research.
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  Host: And finally, we have em at
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  Inland he is the senior vice president and group head of US, Health
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  Care and higher education, at TD Bank which has funded dr.
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  Butler's, clinical trial.
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  Mr. Conlon: Thank you rob for having me on today and what a pleasure it is to meet
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  Brian and Mark.
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  Host: Thank you everybody for joining us here on 20-minute Health Talk.
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  Brian Lally.
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  Tell us about your role in why philanthropy is so important in
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  healthcare.
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  Mr. Lally: Well, thanks, Rob
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  My role is to lead the foundation, which is essentially the
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  fundraising arm of Northwell Health, and specifically to why
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  We have to be; well, let me let me preface by saying to my thanks on
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  behalf of North well
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  and frankly a broader Community to TD Bank for the work that they
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  are doing.
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  It's not just here, by the way, it's a national initiative that they
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  have underway and it's pretty spectacular and I know we'll hear more
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  about it.
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  The nature of Health care is such that we run on a very, very thin
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  margin.
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  This is a non-profit Enterprise and very, very expensive. The Capital
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  cost to run a Health Care, Organization are enormous.
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  So there are many many
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  Many things that we need and want to do and certainly research is one
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  of them and and helping the communities that are underserved
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  is another and there's no funding for these.
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  There's no appropriate funding without philanthropy these things
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  just they wouldn't happen.
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  So it's extraordinarily important to move the organization forward to
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  the point at some point that we hope that these things do get funded
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  but without philanthropy, a lot of things just wouldn't happen.
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  Host: And I feel that is also very true in research.
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  Dr. Butler: Absolutely.
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  I think having the opportunity
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  for external funding from philanthropy opens up so many
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  new doors for research possibilities and I think for, you know, we're
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  going to be talking about my study but this study in lots of other
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  studies that are at the Feinstein institutes couldn't really exist
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  without those external funding sources.
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  Host: Yes.
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  Why don't you tell us a little bit about your research into smart
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  prescription bottles.
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  Dr. Butler: The particular study, that TD Bank has graciously funded here is
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  looking at the adherence to Statin medications amongst individuals
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  identifying as black or African-American.
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  And so the reason why we're doing this research is
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  Is because there's a lot of information showing that Statin
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  medications Instituted as primary prevention.
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  So if you provide someone with Statin before, they have a
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  cardiovascular disease event like a heart attack or a stroke or
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  something along those lines, you can actually prevent the incidence of
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  those events.
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  So individuals, prescribe statins with that primary, prevention
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  capacity can reduce the likelihood of negative outcomes.
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  Now, this is great, but in general, medication adherence is low for
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  most medications but for
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  statins, within the first year about 60 percent of people who were
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  using them
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  do not use them as prescribed within that first year.
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  So there's a lot of opportunity for improvement for getting people to
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  take their medications as prescribed.
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  And the reason why we're focusing specifically on individuals
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  identifying as black or African-American is because individuals who
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  fall within that group have a greater risk of cardiovascular disease,
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  greater risk of cardiovascular mortality than non-hispanic whites.
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  And perhaps most importantly have lower rates of medication
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  adherence than non Hispanic whites.
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  So we wind up in a situation is where we have a greater burden of both
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  mortality and cardiovascular disease, amongst individuals, identifying
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  as black or African-American, but reduced adherence, to potentially
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  life-saving medication therapy.
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  So we hope to address is by creasing medication adherence.
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  We hope to bridge
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  at least partially some of that disparity between non-hispanic whites
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  and black, or African-American individuals
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  Host: Emmet Conlon, what about Mark's
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  And the Feinstein's research prompted TD
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  Bank to provide $150,000 dollar Grant in support?
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  Mr. Conlon: At TD Bank, we're committed to giving back to the communities we
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  serve, and we fulfill that commitment by leveraging our business our
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  philanthropy and our human capital as levers
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  of focusing impact. The TD ready commitment
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  where this grant came from, is our Global corporate citizenship
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  platform and guides are working the local community by targeting
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  Community Investments that fall
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  under one of our four key drivers, which together help create a more
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  inclusive and sustainable future for all.
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  And one of those for drivers is better health and the goal of that
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  driver is to support incredible organizations like Northwell Health
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  and their Innovative programs such as this one led by Mark which focus
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  on breaking down barriers to Health Care access and improving outcomes
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  overall. And that's exactly what this grant is designed to do. To improve
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  healthcare outcomes for the black community by launching Mark's new
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  research program and the first clinical trial to determine
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  the best interventions to reduce cardiovascular disease.
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  And really, that's a long way of saying, it was really just a perfect
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  match and fit into our vision, that match up perfectly with Mark's.
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  Host: So awesome.
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  We're talking about a prime example of philanthropy opening doors for
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  research focused on historically underserved and under treated
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  populations.
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  This question for Brian and Emmett: what lessons have you learned about
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  how to make an impact through investment?
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  Mr. Lally: Well I'll take the lead on this; I'm sure Emmett will reflect on this as well.
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  But certainly from my experience it's a continuation of lessons
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  learned, which is as I said earlier without the without the funding
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  that we can't get from the health system, philanthropy has
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  to fill in.
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  And the a lesson learned is when you find something along the lines of
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  Mark's project, you actually can create a bright future so without the
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  funding, no research. When the research happens,
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  assuming this does prove to be effective
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  It becomes practice then, and then it does get funded and then it turns
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  out that lots and lots of people's lives get saved.
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  That is an impact of philanthropy.
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  And I think that, you know, the call it a lesson learned.
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  But for people who want to make a difference, investing in
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  organization like Northwell has a huge impact that goes beyond just a
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  dollar in.
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  It's a much bigger opportunity than that.
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  Host: It's a ripple effect.
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  Mr. Lally: It is a ripple effect.
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  Mr. Conlon: What I would add is well, I think I work with my
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  colleagues
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  I've definitely learned that
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  it's all about the approach and what makes TD really unique is how the
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  bank approaches Community
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  giving, you know, the focus of our corporate citizenship program is to
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  be intimately connected to the communities we serve.
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  and we do that by working with organizations, like Northwell and
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  people like Mark who are on the ground and deeply rooted in those
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  communities.
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  And those strong relationships really helped the bank identify the
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  most pressing issues, and best ways we can help Drive positive change.
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  With reference to this grant specifically we know cardiovascular disease to a
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  does not impact on communities equally as mentioned
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  earlier, you know.
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  And we hope that through this investment, we can really help identify
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  ways to support Mark in his efforts to break down barriers to care,
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  address, inequities and improve overall health care outcomes for
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  vulnerable populations.
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  Host: Yeah, Mark, how does identifying a funding source factor into
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  designing a trial like this?
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  Dr. Butler: I think greatly I think that every funding source has their particular
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  goals and priorities.
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  So whether it be NIH or TD Bank, I think it's about finding that, you
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  know, nice overlap, in the Venn diagram between their research
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  interests and your research interests.
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  And I think when people are when both groups are really well aligned,
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  it allows things to flow more smoothly.
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  And I think, you know, in terms of design
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  for philanthropy, as opposed to design for say government
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  funding, at least in my limited experience
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  it seems that we're working with the philanthropy sources
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  allow the design to
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  be a little more agile, a little more Nimble.
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  So for the process of this particular project, I you know, the Northwell
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  and TD representatives communicated over a period of several
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  weeks.
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  And at the end of that period we had identified a study that we were
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  both aligned with and both were willing to move forward with.
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  I think if you have other sources of funding, there can be a longer a
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  bit more rigorous
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  but also slow process and there are trade-offs and benefits.
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  But what I've really enjoyed in this process is you're able to move
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  ahead quickly, identify something that we
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  both found interesting and then just engage in it.
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  Mr. Lally: Yeah, I think just to leverage on that and also what Emmett said,
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  philanthropy a piece of this is about relationship.
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  So you know, TD Bank has been a great partner over the years and has
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  become a better partner and I think that's also on our end.
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  So we're delivering for them or to them what they want to accomplish
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  in the community.
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  And I think that's it.
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  That's the important thing is a relationship and then
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  specific to what Emmett said, and I can tell you this from long experience
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  that the Federal
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  Government which is primary source of revenue for research doesn't
• 10:04
  like to fund brand-new things.
• 10:05
  They really like the fund things that they know is going to work, which
• 10:08
  is a little bit of a conundrum, right?
• 10:10
  So how do you actually prove it and you prove it with philanthropy.
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  So you know, when we talked about that opportunity to the ripple
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  effect, it's not just the impact on the community its impact on
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  research itself so that we actually can get more funding to do more
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  research
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  once we prove principle.
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  Host: Yeah.
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  And what would you be our advice to other healthcare
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  systems who are trying to address these racial
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  disparities?
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  Mr. Lally: Well, first off, don't talk to TD Bank.
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  I look, I think it's the same thing, right?
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  It's relationships.
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  The fact that there are underserved communities is not news, right?
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  These communities have been underserved forever.
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  And what happened in the in the context of covid is all of a sudden
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  there's just been huge, huge Awakening and Northwell has
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  been been doing this and been dealing with this for a very very long
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  time.
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  We are actually coalescing now in the context of covid and really
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  putting a lot more energy into that space and I think it's a good idea
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  for others to do the same thing.
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  This is not this is not a simple problem that will get solved in New
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  York or the New York metro area.
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  This is a national problem, which by the way is is an interesting
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  thing to from TD's perspective.
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  I think.
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  And certainly ours, which is this is a; in the scale of this scheme of
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  big things
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  it's modest project, that actually can have impact across the United
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  States of America, which is kind of
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  A big deal when you think about it and it's kind of cool. For $150,000
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  you can change lives in California.
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  So I'd encourage folks to push into the same space we are
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  Host: Yeah, I think Dr. Butler
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  What is interesting, too
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  Is that when you do a research project like this, whatever the outcome
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  is, it raises awareness.
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  I don't think a lot of people knew how bad
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  following medication how much of a problem that could be and how what
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  an impact it could be on people's health and communities.
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  Dr. Butler: And I think, you know, so both piggybacking
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  Off of that and Brian's point in terms of new
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  and Innovative strategies.
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  and the federal government not liking to fund new entirely Innovative
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  things.
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  I think TD's been very generous because we're doing a bunch of
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  different things here.
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  And I think that regardless of the outcome of the trial, the
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  information we collect will be very important because we have a
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  virtual behavioral intervention for individuals on medications.
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  We have a smart pill bottle and then we have a focus group testing
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  before and satisfaction surveys afterwards
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  to incorporate basically the idea of how people feel about the trial
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  before it occurs and then how to feel about it afterwards.
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  And oh, yes, the smart pill bottle
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  Host: I would love to hear about that.
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  Dr. Butler: So we in this current trial, we have a very cool thing where
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  traditionally medication adherence is measured in a bunch of different
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  ways.
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  Self-report, is one where if I ask you, did you take your medication
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  odds are
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  If I'm your doctor, you're going to lie to me because I told you to
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  take it, and you didn't.
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  So that is not the best way to do it.
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  Pharmacy refills or another way where you track whether
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  the prescription was filled and taken out, but what we're doing is
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  tracking medication.
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  adherence, in real time using a smart pill bottle, where you dump all
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  the medication in, there is a weight sensor at the bottom of the pill
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  bottle which registers individual pills being removed and taken.
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  So not only that happens but when the weight sensor measures the
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  change, it transmits information via a cell signal to an online portal.
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  So, we essentially have real-time medication adherence data, which we
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  are then using to inform our
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  intervention.
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  So I am telling people, well, not me.
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  But also the team are telling people
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  'You took your medication as prescribed yesterday.'
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  'You do not take your medications prescribed yesterday.' So we can
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  titrate our intervention based on actual performance and I think
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  that's pretty cool.
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  We're incorporating a lot of very theory-based things from the human
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  behavior change project which is a group that breaks down behavioral
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  interventions to its component parts.
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  So we actually have in our intervention components that relate to all
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  those kinds of behaviors
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  you just talked.
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  It's a multi-component intervention that addresses
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  those different causes of medication non-adherence and provides
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  feedback on real-time.
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  So the goal is to hopefully really if your, if your frazzled and
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  you're forgetting or you know, to help build a system where you do
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  take your meds,
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  Host: This is exciting.
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  I mean, it's amazing.
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  Brian, what you're doing and north wall, and what the foundation is
• 14:24
  doing, tell us a little bit more about the Outpacing Impossible
• 14:28
  campaign.
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  Mr. Lally: So that's a system wide initiatives to generate philanthropic or
• 14:34
  higher level
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  We hope philanthropic support across the Enterprise.
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  You know, the word that Emma has used in the context of TD
• 14:42
  Bank that I've heard him say
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  and I know this for a fact time and time again is community.
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  They are
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  based, they are of and they are thoughtful about the community and
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  this campaign and our organization.
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  At the end of the day, is a community organization.
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  We are the components of so many different parts.
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  Yes, we're the largest health system in the region, but we touch
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  millions and millions of lives.
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  And so, what Outpacing the Impossible is about is about generating
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  support for the communities from the communities, across the
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  Enterprise, and in the context of this campaign, not only are you
• 15:14
  seeing new buildings go up, which is of course important you're
• 15:18
  seeing projects, like this come to life. Our research initiatives,
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  which have been a little bit under the radar as has frankly, the
• 15:24
  entire organization, despite our size is being elevated and people are
• 15:28
  coming to understand
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  from a research perspective, just use this one example.
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  And this is really ultimately what this campaign is going to be about
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  when you think about Community what other organization can engage
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  with.
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  so many people from so many disparate organizations in an Enterprise
• 15:44
  and effort in order to deal with things like health disparity?
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  The answer is simple.
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  There is no other organization in America that can do what Northwell
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  can do.
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  And at the end of the day, I think this Outpacing The Impossible
• 15:54
  campaign is about that about what we can do with those in for those
• 15:57
  communities.
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  Host: Emmett, when you hear
• 16:00
  this talk and you had mentioned before about communities
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  why is it so important for an organization like TD Bank to have
• 16:06
  healthy communities?
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  Mr. Conlon: So look, we're your neighbors, we operate in the same
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  community in which Nortwell operates in which all these
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  institutions, which we support are in.
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  You know.
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  And I do think companies across, you know all Industries are
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  increasingly understanding the importance of giving back to the
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  communities in which they do business.
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  We look to see if our support will help create meaningful impact and
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  greater equity and you can have a better example than, you know, what
• 16:34
  Mark is working on here.
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  Finally what I'll say it's so important
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  organizations like TD and Northwell to come together.
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  You know, I think because together, you know, we have the resources
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  and the expertise to really address these inequities, to improve
• 16:51
  Healthcare outcomes and to ultimately create a more sustainable
• 16:55
  inclusive future for everyone in that community.
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  And that's why it's so important.
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  Host: And I want to ask you a question, it is the same question
• 17:01
  I asked Brian. I asked Brian before about is important for other
• 17:04
  Healthcare organizations to get involved with philanthropy.
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  What about you?
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  You know, is it you talk to other Banks or businesses about the
• 17:12
  importance of doing what you're doing?
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  Mr. Conlon: You know, I think the importance is, you know, at its core, you know,
• 17:17
  this corporate citizenship that's thrown around, you know, it's really
• 17:22
  about customers, colleagues and communities, you know, and as I've
• 17:25
  mentioned time again, you know, I think we have a responsibility to
• 17:28
  show up in the communities in which we operate to be a driver for
• 17:31
  positive change.
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  And I think we have that unique culture, TD where our colleagues
• 17:36
  across the entire footprint are
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  really passionate and want to get involved you know in supporting
• 17:42
  their local communities and you know and whatever changes they can
• 17:46
  bring. We have a lot of people who show up to the
• 17:50
  Northwell annual walk, and we have just people that
• 17:54
  really just want to get engaged and institutions like Nortwell give
• 17:57
  us a lot of opportunity for that so
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  I think being a really good corporate citizen is more than just
• 18:02
  supporting causes, you know, and organizations financially, it can
• 18:06
  really mean, you know, being inclusive and sustainable policies, and
• 18:09
  practices that you can embed into your business and creating
• 18:13
  opportunities for your employees to give back individually.
• 18:18
  I think you see a lot of organizations you know, realizing that, you
• 18:21
  It's not just good for business,
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  you know, it's good for our customers.
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  It's good for our colleagues and it's
• 18:30
  Really just great for the community and there's that word again right?
• 18:34
  Host: With 165K donors
• 18:35
  tell us about the various types of donors we have. We have a
• 18:39
  Emmett here today from TD Bank and they're also individuals like Leonard
• 18:43
  and Susan Feinstein who donate because of first-hand experience.
• 18:46
  Mr. Lally: Yeah, so I think about this 165,000 organizations and people have made
• 18:53
  a gift to Northwell Health in the last few years.
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  That's a lot of people, right?
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  Which is a great.
• 18:57
  It's a great corollary to what we've been talking about.
• 19:00
  Is a community that's reaching out to us.
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  They're connecting to us.
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  And people who have supported this campaign thus far include people
• 19:08
  who have given us literally tens of millions of dollars of their own
• 19:11
  wealth, which is extraordinary and other people who have given
• 19:15
  $10, or $25, and organizations, like TD Bank who are partnering
• 19:20
  with us. Emmett mentioned the health walk, this
• 19:24
  grant is significant but not the only thing that TD Bank does and
• 19:28
  yeah, I'll take it a step further.
• 19:29
  There are there are people who work for TD Bank who are participating
• 19:33
  in this walk and and they're writing personal checks to Northwell
• 19:37
  Health.
• 19:37
  So they're committed to the organization to understand what we're
• 19:40
  doing.
• 19:40
  And they're trying to make a difference. For a lot
• 19:44
  of people it has something to do with their own personal experience.
• 19:46
  So they've had a health situation and it's prompted them to want to
• 19:50
  give back. But for other people.
• 19:52
  And this is, this grant is a perfect example that they are looking at
• 19:55
  this, from a much bigger perspective.
• 19:57
  They're looking at this from the societal perspective from the
• 20:00
  civic duty.
• 20:00
  And what can we do to make society better?
• 20:03
  And there's a lot of people who are committed to us in that space
• 20:07
  165,000 and more.
• 20:10
  We're not done yet.
• 20:11
  Host: It's awesome.
• 20:12
  Brian, Lally
• 20:13
  Dr. Butler. Emmett Conlon
• 20:15
  Thank you so much for joining us here on 20-Minute Health Talk.
• 20:17
  And for you, the listener, thank you so much for tuning in.
• 20:20
  I'm Rob Hoell. Have a great day and stay safe.