A fireside chat with Dr. Aletha Maybank, pioneering physician-advocate and former Chief Health Equity Officer at the American Medical Association
In an era of deepfakes and health misinformation, how do we build patient trust and foster meaningful behavioral change? Dr. Maybank discusses how art, culture, and innovative community-based engagement strategies can transform healthcare delivery where traditional approaches fall short. Drawing from her groundbreaking equity work and current focus on narrative arts in health, Dr. Maybank offers hospital leaders a bold vision: healthcare that meets patients where they are—culturally, emotionally, and digitally—creating connections that transcend clinical settings and technological barriers. This session reveals how integrating artistic approaches with technological innovation creates healthcare delivery models that don't just inform—they inspire, engage, and heal. Participants will gain actionable strategies for creating healthcare experiences that are not only more equitable and accessible but also more compelling and effective in capturing attention in our distracted digital world.
Art as Medicine's Missing Ingredient
Beyond Hospital Walls: Cultural Gateways to Health
AI, Art & Trust: Navigating the Digital Health Future
Aletha Maybank, MD, MPH, Health Strategist, CEO, NovellaWells
Megan Antonelli, Founder & CEO, HealthIMPACT Live
0:01: Welcome to Digital Health Talks. Each week we meet with healthcare leaders making an immeasurable difference in equity, access, and quality. Hear about what tech is worth investing in and what isn't as we focus on the innovations that deliver. Join Megan Antonelli, Janae Sharp, and Shahid Shaw for a weekly no BS deep dive on what's really making an impact in healthcare.
0:25: I'm Aletha Maybank, my background, I usually now say my background is I'm a, a person, first born here, from Antigua.
0:41: my, my parents were immigrants, and I have lived in New York most of my life.
0:47: Harrisburg, Pennsylvania is actually where I grew up, which tracks a lot of people based on who I am.
0:52: , I went to school in Baltimore and Philadelphia, and then ended up here in New York City.
0:58: I am a pediatrician and preventive medicine public health doctor by training.
1:03: , I practiced for 2 years as a hospitalist here, up the street at, Morgan Stanley, Children's Hospital, when they first opened, actually, I was one of the docs that transferred babies over in the NICU at that time.
1:19: And then I ended up going, actually doing the second residency at that point in time in preventive medicine and public health, which afforded.
1:26: me this opportunity to start an office of minority housing in Long Island.
1:32: I was asked that I wasn't even finished with residency, but they asked if I would start that office.
1:36: My program director agreed and thought it was a very good opportunity.
1:40: And so that was my entry into kind of the job market, but also public health as well as government all at the same time.
1:49: So I launched that office, started it, was there for 3 years, then I was recruited to New York City Health Department when Tom Frieden was here, and Mary Bassett was here as well as a deputy commissioner at that time.
2:04: I oversaw neighborhood health in Brooklyn and in Bed Stuy and the kind of the communities that were the most underinvested and had the worst health outcomes.
2:15: And then Dr.
2:17: Bassett, de Blasio became mayor and Dr.
2:19: Blas, Dr.
2:20: Bassett came on as the health commissioner.
2:23: And she asked if I would come to the central office, I was promoted to a deputy commissioner and then launched the Center for Health Equity in New York City and started the whole work around that, and then I oversaw all the neighborhoods across the city, that had the worst health outcomes.
2:41: I, I left there 2019, and ended up at the American Medical Association.
2:47: , for the start, their Center for Health equity, I was the inaugural Chief Health equity officer there as well, and senior vice president, and I also in the meantime, I advised the CDC director as the senior advisor on the equity infrastructure within the institution which will bring up a whole lot of great conversation because clearly I'm saying equity a lot, and a lot of folks usually have a lot of questions about that.
3:13: But I would say if I describe my career, it's been these really unique opportunities.
3:19: I've never had a job where there's a roadmap in front of me, which I'm very grateful for.
3:24: I've always had to create, I've always had to design, I've always had to think through what is the strategy, the execution, and what is the team that needs to be there in place in order to build the team.
3:33: , and I would say definitely public health is more my but people know me as equity, but that's kind of the lens, the, the process and the outcome of which we were holding people accountable to the values that the institution said they had, but really the bread and butter of who I am is public health, and that's my love and my professional love.
3:53: I was actually speaking at the New York City Department of Health yesterday, at the ask of the commissioner, so.
4:01: And I'm here, I resigned in December, so I'm figuring out my life and smiling while I do it.
4:08: Well, it's an amazing, amazing career already, and I think you've done, you know, been involved and done so many important things.
4:16: but one of the things that you didn't mention is you're also.
4:19: An artist, you said you're a creator.
4:22: and I think one of the things that we've been trying to do as, you know, healthcare is, you know, inherently human.
4:28: If it hasn't anything else, it's human.
4:30: We can, you know, it's broken, it's lots of things, lots of work to do, but it's human.
4:33: And as we talk about that intersection of technology and the implementation of AI.
4:40: We're trying to kind of make this discussion about the humanity of it and I think the creators and as we know and need all the people who work in healthcare that's what we care about so what you know as you're kind of being a creator and an artist and working in health care as a as a pediatrician and and as a public health advocate and equity advocate, you know, where do you see the potential and.
5:02: Yeah yeah.
5:03: So thank you, well, so this is the, the part of being not an institution anymore of figuring out what is my identity, how do I describe myself, what seems most meaningful for me or what it for the audience that I'm engaging with whatever it is, and it might not be like a big audience, it could be a small and even the individual person.
5:23: And so I, you know, my whole career has been physician, you know, and physician.
5:28: Now it's, I get to choose, which is kind of quite awesome, I feel.
5:32: I am more of, I tell people more of an artist I feel than I am a scientist.
5:37: I grew up piano, dance, singing, you name it, I was, I was there, and so I also, so I recently launched a film studio as well.
5:49: I'm very big on, thank you, I appreciate that, big on.
5:54: Narratives and the narratives that we put forward, that's been the thread of my career.
5:57: Most people who know me have a sense of that.
6:00: What are the narratives that we are saying, and then acting upon because we're we act upon the narratives that are most meaningful to advance the health for all people, really.
6:11: And so, I don't feel, and I think we all know that not all folks' narratives are not even all the narratives around health itself.
6:20: I think the narrative around health is very narrow in this country.
6:24: It is much rooted on kind of the healthcare side, very technical, which is fine to some level, basically about basic science.
6:34: If you think about all the shows on TV, if you were to name a health show, where do they all happen?
6:41: The hospital and ERs, right?
6:43: Or surgical spaces, maybe.
6:45: But that's the only way health has typically been demonstrated and it's, it's It seems normal for most people.
6:53: You don't even really question it.
6:55: But there are so many other stories to be told, even about systems that just don't get told.
7:01: So I have a very strong interest in, you know, telling and sharing those stories moving forward.
7:07: And I think that the part of it is in terms of the humanity, you know, I was fortunate when I was deputy commissioner that the commissioner at that.
7:16: time Mary Bassett allowed us to pursue art and engaging with art and community because it's a good way to pull people into the conversation, because we all actually value art on some level, or, or culture.
7:30: And I'll say it more broadly culture, whether it's music, whether it's visual arts, whatever.
7:35: We all listen, well, maybe most, I would think all of us listen to music at some point in time.
7:40: but that's where everybody is at.
7:42: And so if everybody is there, and it's something that we all care about, then how do we leverage culture and the arts more to bring people into the spaces where we need them to be, as well as also meet people where they are.
7:58: and so that's, that's kind of the drive of where I.
8:01: At right now and figuring out what all those things mean.
8:04: Yeah, and I think that's so important as we look at how, you know, I think storytelling and, you know, misinformation in healthcare and education and engaging people in their health.
8:14: I mean, we were just at him SoCal and talking about, you know, kind of.
8:20: With with kids, you know, with children and how you engage them in their healthcare and, you know, sort of this call for gamification and, and very much telling.
8:28: So later in the in the program we have Gary Forbes coming who has written a book called Soul Survivors, which is a comic book, but to help kids and the kids, the superheroes and the kids, it's all story.
8:40: It's all coming together, right?
8:41: And that's, it's all about storytelling and his, his story and, you know, he's, you know, NBA player, was an NBA player is now wanting to, and he has diabetes, so he's trying to engage kids around their chronic disease and I think that's so important and and there's so many avenues where we're we're missing.
9:00: that in healthcare.
9:01: It's when I was in New York City Department of Health, and I'll bring it up a lot because it's, it's really a core of, I feel it's one of those, you know, you go, there's somewhere you go and there's always some piece of you that always rests from an institution, I think that you were in oftentimes because it just had that much meaning.
9:17: But if you remember, anybody remember the smoking ads, right?
9:21: You all remember the smoking ads, the sugary beverage ads.
9:24: We all remember them, right?
9:26: And so I think about why is that?
9:30: What investment had to happen in order for that to occur, so investment in will, number one, that the data that really demonstrated we need to do it, that there's that, the scientific will, but then there's the will that we should put the dollars and the investment into doing this.
9:47: So I remember, you know, the content that was created, great content.
9:52: But it was really what what amplified it is this intention and understanding that in order to get it across the country, you have to spend millions, multi-millions of dollars.
10:02: People who are in marketing and advertising have a clear sense that to get anything out that far, this is before social media, that you had to invest and you still have to invest lots of money.
10:12: CDC.
10:12: would pour money into the Department of Health to make sure that these ads got everywhere, and they were so transformational.
10:19: And I think about that level of investment in order to get people to move.
10:23: Most people don't have multi-million in healthcare unless it's like, you know, pharma on the pharma side, maybe in some other places tech side, I guess, to some level.
10:33: Tech, but for the most part, people in health, public health departments who are really creating a lot of these messages don't have the funding to reach people in that kind of way to really be transformational.
10:46: If we, there's so many ad cancel, I love ad council rather great campaigns on their website, but nobody knows about them.
10:53: And so where do they need to do?
10:55: How do we need to partner?
10:56: What do we have to do strategically in order to either amplify the messages or partner from the beginning in creating and then figuring out what is distribution.
11:06: And so that's been the value of social media, one of the values of social media is that.
11:11: You know, you have there's this platform now that if people are good at it, not everybody's good at it, but if you're good at it, you may get your message across.
11:18: So there's a one of my mentees is Joel Borvell, who's considered the medical myth buster.
11:23: Some people know about him.
11:25: He's reached so many people, right?
11:27: And It's, and he's not, he gets paid for it now, and he gets lots of ad dollars, but he's not paying to distribute, right?
11:35: And so social media is a great platform, but not everybody can do that.
11:39: And so this is where then I think about culture and the opportunities around that, and I can talk more about like what I'm doing in that space as well.
11:47: But I I tell us a little bit more because I think it's, it's also just, you know, how, I mean, how can we.
11:52: this whether we're technologists or clinicians or, you know, working in the healthcare space, you know, it, it is telling that story and getting, you know, whoever it is that we're serving in that market engaged.
12:03: And I think, and I'll say two points before what I'm doing, but the other thing that I recognize about health, and this is that we have to own it, is that we have a certain type of, I'm going to use the word.
12:16: I don't know if it's the supremacy in the sense of we feel that because we put it out that people should pay attention.
12:23: There's a, there's a strong sense of that because we created it and you know, it's good or this is the vice we're providing that people should automatically do it.
12:32: And the reality is is that that's just, it doesn't happen.
12:35: And so, and we get those signs and signals over and over again.
12:39: And I feel this is why we have to have better bridges, more understanding, this can be rooted actually and we were talking about education of students, education of all kinds of professionals, and what.
12:51: Do people really value?
12:53: I mean, that's a marketing concept, right?
12:55: You go to the values of your audiences and if you understand that your audiences value certain types of cultures in certain places and experiences and ways of moving, then we should be paying attention to it.
13:10: A great example again, New York City Department of Health, you know, when I was first deputy commissioner, we had a lot of work on like.
13:18: Active transportation, you know, riding bikes and, and all of that.
13:22: Most people ride bikes.
13:24: Well, I won't say most, a lot of people ride bikes, and it's a good form of exercise.
13:29: But was it, what wasn't in the consciousness of a lot of folks and at that time, the majority of assistant commissioners were actually white privileged folks in the sense of of financial and education privilege, I mean, who had a certain way of being.
13:44: Bikes were very popular.
13:47: But they were trying to impart the same kind of programmatic work on black and brown communities.
13:52: And it's not that black and brown communities don't bike, but it wasn't a priority for them.
13:57: And so when bike lanes started to be put down, I would get the feedback because I oversaw the neighborhoods.
14:02: Well, that's racist because they're trying to slow down traffic and they know we have asthma.
14:07: That's where the mindset goes.
14:09: And so again, it's understanding what people value.
14:12: It's not that they wouldn't value bike lanes over time.
14:15: But how do you get that?
14:16: How do you understand that?
14:17: Where do you meet people at to understand what's going to be a most important first.
14:22: And then you can get people to act first and then move into these other pieces of where we know health is, is really valuable and, and, and things to have in the neighborhood.
14:30: And so we ended up doing a whole community collabor there were business leaders at the table in the, the community of Brownsville, community residents, BOH health department, the transportation department, we had grants, we did them all together and it was really it was one of my, my favorite kind of opportunities of having this collective.
14:50: , impact.
14:52: I remember people sitting around the table with big maps, and this is where we're going to put this bike lane and this bike lane, and then we're gonna do all these infrastructure improvements and by the end of it, all these bike lanes were put down, the community was a part of the process.
15:06: They were able to inform that and they were able to make.
15:08: The streets actually safer in that community and created connectivity, which is a really important concept when it comes to, I'm going to use the word freedom, but the ability to be able to ride a bike around the city.
15:20: So it was able to go from one part of Brooklyn the whole way out to the south part of.
15:26: By Queen Brooklyn if you unders what do you call that out there.
15:30: I live in Brooklyn.
15:30: Oh my goodness, Coney I'm an area, yeah, thank you, thank you.
15:35: Goodness, that's I, you know, OK, but it was great that it created that connectivity.
15:39: So those are the possibilities, but most people don't take the time about it, most people don't know about it, but to me it's still very it's marketing.
15:45: It's for people who do marketing, it's, it's understanding what do people value and how do we get them there.
15:53: So talk a little bit about your experience at the AMA and, you know, as, as the inaugural equity officer and and sort of where where that started, where it ended, where it's going, do you think in terms of health care and and kind of weaving that into sort of the storytelling and what people meeting people where they are, you know.
16:12: Yeah, I, I, I've evolved a lot.
16:15: I mean, it's, it's, it's been my career, as I said, I feel it's this lens.
16:20: I think for me, At this point, I'm.
16:24: , I do a lot of just trying to dispel like these myths around the words, like equity, diversity and inclusion, because it's just, I don't, I've never used the word DEI or the three letters in that way, because I'm, I, DEI historically was something that was related to HR.
16:42: , and related to the workforce, and very important.
16:47: I'm not an HR expert at all.
16:50: I am an equity and health expert, so I focus more on the context of health, clearly, and the data and what happens around that and what solutions.
17:01: You put in place, but then at the institutional level where I've also been, I am what's happening within the workforce is very important, but it's also what's happening within coms, what's happening in IT.
17:12: There are equity lenses to put in place in all these places within an institution and so that's what I held accountability to.
17:20: And really the, the whole drive of these programs was post-civil rights.
17:26: I mean, there was the civil rights movement that didn't just helped black people, it helped actually the majority of Americans in this country, women included, those who identified as being disabled, those who are not from this country, to have opportunities to have jobs and to be able to.
17:41: Live in places where they weren't able to live before.
17:44: Most Americans benefited, if not all, honestly, from that particular error.
17:50: But we were clear, not everybody understood that, and that decisions that were happening at the institutional level were not still appreciating and valuing this context.
17:58: So that was a way to hold accountability, the, the program, that was it.
18:03: That, and so then the other part to it, at the end of the day, you know, if, if as a health person, as a doctor.
18:11: If I know that somebody is not, does not have the opportunity to experience, you all, many of you are creators.
18:19: If people don't have the opportunity to experience the solution that you have and you have created.
18:25: Then I need to care about that, right?
18:27: Because and also it's an ethical consideration then, because that means that I'm harming somebody and they don't have the opportunity to experience that solution.
18:37: I need to care about that.
18:38: I should care about that.
18:40: And that is all that this to me, the context is.
18:43: And it's to me then becomes.
18:46: A human context of whether or not you care.
18:50: And so that's what I ended up starting to feel my job was I was I was getting paid a lot of money to help people care about things outside of their own self interests.
19:04: And, and that's where it really to me, I, I felt like that, that's where the rubber hit the road, you know, it's so easy for people who don't have an experience, that's anybody, right?
19:15: And all of us can be under this particular trap and lens in a way for us to disassociate ourselves from what we don't know and don't experience.
19:25: And when you have the power to do it, you can do that.
19:28: You can, you can do that for your institution or your company or whatever.
19:32: And It's part of just saying how do we care better as human beings?
19:37: And I don't, I don't know how we do that to some level.
19:39: I mean, part of it, I could say, yeah, let's be in proximity with each other.
19:43: Let's, let's love one another and I'm one about the believer of love.
19:46: I do believe that.
19:47: I think that that is the core of the context is how we love ourselves and each other, but I can't force that upon people.
19:54: If people weren't raised in that way, then I don't, that's a condition that is a problem clearly that's bigger.
20:02: Right?
20:02: Well, and it ties back to, I mean, meeting people where they are and making them care about what they care about and bringing them, you know, further, whether it's, you know, Within an organization from an AHR perspective or or health care, right?
20:15: Yeah, I mean, we can meet people where where they're at the best, you know, that we can.
20:19: And I think at this point, for me, meeting people where I'm at, and I guess it's where I'm kind of in the space.
20:26: I mean, I'm doing a lot of advising, consulting.
20:28: I mean, that's, that's given for many different things.
20:31: Some people want support with what to do, how to evolve, and I'm not, I'm not one to say use the words equity, diversity and.
20:38: If it doesn't make sense for your institution at this moment, because at the end of the day, you need to care for your people and I don't want folks to lose their jobs.
20:46: I don't want money to get cut for certain reasons.
20:49: You know, it's not illegal, first of all, so the, the, the, the backtracking is still a little bit confusing in my head, when it's not illegal, period.
21:00: So the fact that it's still happening also just represents.
21:05: To me, again, an underlying how much do we care about people really and what are we doing.
21:11: And so I'm in a space I've been helping the Global Black Economic Forum in essence, I don't, some people may have heard the product Shea Moisture, it was sold by Richard Lou Dennis who By Unilever and then he bought Essence Platform, launched Sundial Media Group, and bought all these media platforms, Refinery 29, Girls United, BeautyCon, it's and Essence launched New Voices and also it launched a sister agencies called Global Black Economic Forum.
21:41: So it's the largest in the world platform for communications and media for not just black people, but people of color and women.
21:49: And so I've been engaging with that on figuring out how to, to leverage that entity to work to advance health.
21:55: And so, coming up at Essence Fest, July 4th, which has been the last, I don't know, 2025 years, it's been a long time running in New Orleans, it's the largest festival in the country with a half a million people over 3 days, and they have different experiences.
22:11: A lot of people saw the movie, so they think it's all about fun.
22:14: It is fun, but it's not all about.
22:16: You know, you know, drinking and partying and being in New Orleans, there are concerts at night, that happens, but during the day, the convention center has lots of brands and companies and engagement and so we're working on launching the health arm of it.
22:28: We have a health innovation hub actually in which founders who don't typically who are underinvested typically don't get capital in the ways that other ones do have now this opportunity to have actually direct to consumer engagement, which is very different.
22:42: , there aren't many entities or places that actually do that.
22:46: So there's a whole hub of about, you know, 8 or 10, we've been growing it for the last 3 years.
22:51: I started that actually when I was at AMA.
22:53: , and then we also have the Future of Health initiative that's being launched through the Global Black Economic Forum.
23:00: Again, you know, really trying to bring this intersection of political leaders, health, democracy, work, and wealth, you know, it together for experiential opportunities.
23:12: We have a neighborhood we're building out and with gaming, we talked to a whole group of gaming people, so we're going to build that over time because I do think.
23:18: , gaming is a really important space.
23:21: I think it's like 72 more women game than men.
23:24: I didn't know that.
23:25: I didn't realize that.
23:27: and I think gaming can be a really powerful tool, to kind of games.
23:32: Yeah, all kinds of games, yes, exactly.
23:34: , that's great.
23:37: I'm so excited to see it come, you know, come to pass and like in terms of like how folks can.
23:42: Get involved in that.
23:43: I assume there's a website and all that, yeah, or me, I'm on LinkedIn, yeah, however you want.
23:48: And then I don't know if you want to be saying anything about AMA or no, OK.
23:51: Well, yeah, I'm not there.
23:53: I don't know, I just, I think I said some of it, but I just feel the work.
24:00: I think all institutions need to decide, you know, what, what they're going to do at this moment, clearly, and they are, the hope is that, you know, they make choices that support their.
24:14: stated commitments, because most, a lot of people are not doing that, and that they're supporting the people that are there in their institutions.
24:21: You know, a lot of people are harmed right now, you know, and I, I, we're, we're in a place in this country where we all understand that we're in a moment where people are gonna have to make a lot of decisions on what they want to do, how they want to stand up, not only within the institutions that they're working or that they're leading, but with their own communities, with their own families, and I, we all have the same value that we do all want to live long and healthy lives.
24:48: We, I don't know many people who don't.
24:51: I mean, I just don't, and so if we can.
24:55: Honor that amongst each other, better, try at least.
25:01: it would we'd be in a better place.
25:03: Yeah.
25:03: And a lot of that is around, you know, the importance of health to that longevity, to that life and and sort of the quality of life.
25:09: That's how you get there.
25:11: Well, one of the things that we're about at Health Impact is audience questions.
25:14: We incentivize them, you get, you get.
25:16: Tickets when you ask a question you then get enrolled in the raffle so for the aura ring at the end I forgot to mention that in the beginning so do we have any questions, any comments, any thoughts, you know, as as you think about you know, that intersection of technology and health care and culture and communication and storytelling.
25:38: Thank you, great discussion.
25:39: I love what you're talking about and particularly around.
25:43: The intersection of media, throughout the years, we've seen media manipulate us, So some things are good, some things are bad.
25:54: What do you see us with around, you know, public health.
25:59: Will we ever be a day, will there ever be a day again where we can actually use the motion and marketing like things that you're doing to actually have positive.
26:11: You know, I remember the Yak Moun commercials in the 70s, you know, all these things were transformative, right?
26:17: To, to young minds or your, your brain on drugs campaign.
26:20: These things really stuck in our heads.
26:24: Do you see us getting back to a point where the government helps fund so that we can actually have, you know, these kind of positive health outcomes?
26:32: I mean, I don't know if I, I don't know if I I hope so.
26:35: You know, I think that, I think the the question is.
26:39: Well the answer is rather several points, I would like to see us get there for sure.
26:46: Is a possibility absolutely.
26:49: Is the challenge now within federal government?
26:52: Absolutely, I can say that.
26:53: You don't have this doesn't have to be a health effect doesn't have to say that.
26:55: I'll say it, because the reality is true.
26:59: I have many colleagues who aren't working anymore who used to do this kind of work at the federal level and put the investments in that I was talking about earlier, but this is where I think then and local.
27:10: Governments, state governments, and city governments do not have and county governments don't have the resources at all.
27:16: They're they're struggling.
27:18: And I think if we don't have like a transition also in the infrastructure for public health in this country, which all of us benefit from, have always benefited from, we benefit, you know, as we're sitting here in this room.
27:31: , we're going to continue to see less and less, even less promotion because we're going to have to respond to whatever immediate, you know, crisis or disaster that is happening.
27:44: And right now, you know, COVID is Is right, it's kind of sustained, you know, that that yesterday data came out actually for the first time.
27:54: This is why at the health department, that when that New York City life expectancy is now back up to the same level that it was prior to COVID.
28:03: It fell about 3 years, during the time of COVID.
28:06: So the announcement was yesterday that we're now back up to the same levels and New York City actually is on a trajectory to have one of the longest life expectancies for a city in the country.
28:17: So that's all good news.
28:19: Clearly the the the challenge of it on one level, so I don't know how much good news is that there are many communities across the city that aren't experiencing the same opportunity, but overall, still we're all even everybody's still going on that same trajectory, and so.
28:35: You know, New York City is a place that has prioritized health and the public health infrastructure, and especially, you know, I, I can go back from what, sorry, since the time I've been in government was Bloomberg is known to be, was known to be a public health person, right?
28:50: As a school of public health named after him.
28:52: So he prioritized it.
28:54: And I think the city more so than most prioritizes it, so we have more investment in promotional materials and ads and and all of that.
29:03: But that's just again a will, I think.
29:06: , distinction because political leadership will kind of determine a lot of that and where investments go in that way.
29:14: And this is where then the opportunity is around culture, leveraging culture, folks like myself and other health leaders who have, you know, these larger networks and understanding and some influence can work with these folks to create campaigns.
29:28: I think we have to figure out what that nexus.
29:30: of who's going to create champagnes.
29:34: and you have the ad council, but we have to figure out how they're gonna be leveraged.
29:37: , great talk and thank you for your advocacy in this space as well.
29:42: I'm Christopher Cunney.
29:44: you touched on a little bit of the issue around black and brown entrepreneurs challenges and securing funding and support to launch their platforms in this space.
29:57: I'm just curious, are you working with You just mentioned Bloomberg's, School, are you working with other, you know, academic institutions, HBCUs, and to really help create potential tech accelerators, that focus on helping to cultivate this next generation of health tech leaders of color.
30:20: Yeah, so when I was at AMA, when I was figuring out what the strategy needed needed to be at the start.
30:27: , I started to get a lot of influx, you know, folks, a lot of founders reaching out saying, they didn't have this investment.
30:35: Mind you, I came from public health, so I didn't know much about the space yet, really at all because it's not a public health, which is another interesting challenge too, because it's not like in the definition of how you all think about innovation.
30:50: Innovation we thought about at the intersection of like who's at the table.
30:55: And how are all different voices coming at the table to produce a solution.
31:00: In healthcare, it's about who's starting some level of technology or solution and getting, and then getting it sold and getting it paid, right?
31:08: It's a different context.
31:10: So I didn't have it.
31:11: So a lot of founders were coming to me saying, expressing this particular gap.
31:16: And so from that brought together other kind of leaders who We're at the intersection of technology and equity to learn what was needed, what would be needed from a platform like the American Medical Association to push forward.
31:32: And what they stated and felt is that what was lacking were just even principles at this time.
31:36: This was now, so I started my role in 2019.
31:41: COVID came like eight months later.
31:44: And then the public murder of George Floyd came about a year later.
31:48: And so once that moment happened, there was lots of openness, honestly, at that time to name all these issues, right?
31:56: And this is why we have the backlash that we have, well, one of the reasons why we have the backlash at this moment, but to be able to talk about equity, justice, racism, all the things, right?
32:05: And so we were able to then Launch principles because they felt that that's what we needed to do because folks were giving money left and right and didn't even know why they were giving money really and, and what were they giving money for and how was that money going to be executed or implemented and executed, you know, to do whatever it is they're going to do.
32:24: So we needed to guide, have some guiding principles.
32:27: So we launched something called Info Health.
32:29: I think it's still.
32:30: Existing in full health and worked to create principles, but also a business tool kit for what companies could do or investors could do, in order to ensure that they were having solutions and strategies that ensured opportunities for these founders.
32:48: and so the work was really a lot of listening, a lot of.
32:54: Doing what I'm doing now, advocacy and then in terms of and through that process, I met tons of folks, tons of founders, but also a lot of inventors venture, limited less venture because venture just doesn't work for black and brown people.
33:10: It just doesn't.
33:10: It's like it.
33:12: It's consistently doesn't work.
33:14: The percentage of money that goes to women, people of color, those who are disabled is very small.
33:20: And so that means to me another solution needs to be created on how we can actually start companies and technology companies, especially in health.
33:28: Care because we aren't valued.
33:30: That's to me the bottom line of it.
33:32: We are not valued our ideas are not valued, the solutions are not valued.
33:36: So we have to do something differently and some people hear that and they're like, I'm like, well that's that's the truth.
33:42: Look at the data we like data, look at it.
33:44: And so I've I've met lots of folks like at Howard, they do have an incubator, an accelerator there as well.
33:53: there's C Ventures, there's unse, there are, there are, there are a couple that are around, so I've been working with them to figure out, you know, how to leverage and amplify, but I also feel the reason why I'm also working with like an essence.
34:07: I and more the consumer, I think there's a cultural shift that also can happen for communities to better understand.
34:16: Entrepreneurship beyond like beauty products and and not that beauty products aren't good, but how do we understand that we can also be health providers, health creators.
34:29: And then also how do we collectively invest in it because I feel that that is our model to use is the more the collective investment type models we invest as a black and brown community in so many things, right?
34:41: We spend our dollars, everybody knows that as well.
34:44: And so if we can have some shifts in that, then that's kind of where I'm at.
34:47: That's a big job that's bigger than any job I would have had in any role, but you know, I'm a believer, so that's the direction that I'm going.
34:55: I believe you can do it too.
34:56: , well, that was great.
34:59: I think we're out of time.
35:03: I wish I could go on all day, but thank you so much, Doctor.
35:07: great to have you here.
35:09: I appreciate the opportunity.
35:12: Thank you for joining us on Digital Health Talks, where we explore the intersection of healthcare and technology with leaders who are transforming patient care.
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