Elizabeth “Betsy” Bradley, president of Vassar College, joins KP to discuss the importance of placing greater focus on the social determinants of health in the context of healthcare in the United States.
Show Notes
Elizabeth “Betsy” Bradley is the president of Vassar College and is one of the leading healthcare policy experts in the United States, including on the topic of social determinants of health. Betsy was on the faculty at Yale University for more than 20 years and most recently was the director of the Brady-Johnson Program in Grand Strategy. She’s written more than 300 peer-reviewed papers and three books, including The American Healthcare Paradox.
Betsy joins KP to discuss the importance of placing greater focus on the social determinants of health in the context of healthcare in the United States. Betsy talks about her journey to writing a bestselling book on the topic, leadership in health care, and diversity equity and inclusion.
Main Topics
- Betsy’s early career and her journey to health care policy and management and the pivotal moment in her career as a hospital administrator the lead to a passion for advancing better healthcare (4:00)
- How teaching an undergrad course in health policy at Yale University led to writing an op-ed for The New York Times and eventually her bestselling book, The American Healthcare Paradox (8:05)
- Answering the question of why does the United States spend so much money on healthcare but have worse health outcomes compared to other countries and how striking a better balance between social determinants and medical care could be the transformative answer (10:00)
- Betsy’s experience successfully leading Vassar College through the COVID-19 pandemic through organizational resilience, constructive conflict, a value system of equity, and maintaining alignment with a common goal (17:02)
- The younger generation’s focus on the intersection of social justice and health care as well as a greater emphasis on mental health (25:58)
- Vassar’s partnership with Columbia School of Public Health (27:36)
- The skills, values, leadership necessary in transforming healthcare system and the need for empathy in diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) (29:15)
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What is InOn Health Podcast?
Health equity issues in our country have been around for decades – largely impacting communities of color and rural areas. When it comes to economic and racial disparities in health the evidence is clear. This is more than a hot topic. Covid-19 has exposed the underbelly of how social determinants of health and racial disparities play out in our country. What we need now is to impart lasting change.
Welcome to the InOn Health podcast. I’m your host Kaakpema Yelpaala, and I’m the co-founder and CEO of InOn Health.
In this podcast we’re going to be talking about health equity. We’ll be talking to entrepreneurs, thought leaders, investors, and other industry experts in healthcare and public health. The topics we’ll cover will range from racial disparities in health to digital innovation for diverse populations, and ultimately how we build better policy to more inclusively serve everyone around their healthcare needs.
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