Genentech and community partners are using an intersectional approach to increase health equity for underrepresented communities.
"We have to take a holistic approach to address health equity because there are multiple factors that contribute to disparities in healthcare," says Veronica Sandoval, Ph.D., J.D., Principal, Patient Inclusion and Health Equity. In 2022, Genentech launched the regional Health Equity Symposia with 27 events in 16 U.S. cities, reaching more than 4,000 people.
The Symposia had a unique focus: conduct focused and solution-driven discussions among policy makers, healthcare providers, industry executives, business leaders, community leaders and scientists about the current state of inequitable health outcomes and unconscious bias mitigation efforts.
We acknowledge the complex, multifaceted challenges that underrepresented patients can experience on their healthcare journeys such as the ways that policy, health literacy, funding and quality of care impact patient outcomes. Whether patients are looking to access care or find a culturally competent doctor, it's vital each individual feels fully seen, heard and cared for, and not reduced to a one-dimensional stereotype.
Our Symposia addressed these challenges in multiple ways. Local organizations developed panels and presentations across a range of topics: LGBTQ+ mental health, the importance of health justice and increasing the diversity of clinical studies - all designed to highlight a holistic approach to patient care. The focus topics for each event were at the discretion of partner organizations, which is an unusual, autonomous approach that, at first, "they couldn't believe," says Sandoval.
Shaquisha Odusoga, MS-HCA Program Manager for the Sutter Health Institute for Advancing Health Equity, says that when coordinating speakers, she felt free to craft a symposium that would get at the heart of the patient experience. "I was coming from a perspective of 'What would I want to experience as a patient?' I wanted to see Scientists of Color, people that looked like me and who are in our communities doing this work," Odusoga says. Patient attendance drove greater accountability. "You can't build trust with the community if you're not supporting them," says Odusoga. "The feedback I got was that patients see real change coming because they could hear everything we're holding ourselves accountable for. It's a real collaboration."
