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Health Affairs This Week places listeners at the center of health policy’s proverbial water cooler. Join editors from Health Affairs, the leading journal of health policy research, and special guests as they discuss this week’s most pressing health policy news. All in 15 minutes or less.
00;00;08;22 - 00;00;11;27
Vabren Watts
Thanks for joining Health Affairs This Week. I'm Vabren Watts.
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Ryann Tanap
And I'm Ryann Tanap.
00;00;14;21 - 00;00;19;05
Vabren Watts
You'll be hearing from us throughout the year with the podcast episodes focused on Health Equity.
00;00;19;24 - 00;00;30;04
Ryann Tanap
Yeah, that's right, Vabe, and I think it'd be great to start off this podcast just kind of reflecting on some of the recent and upcoming cultural observances.
00;00;30;10 - 00;00;31;24
Vabren Watts
Oh, yes. April was a month.
00;00;32;05 - 00;00;57;11
Ryann Tanap
Yes, April was, or is, Arab-American Heritage Month. So we're wrapping up that month. And just for some context, there are about 4 million Americans that have Arab roots in the US. That means people of descent from the Middle East and North African countries. And I also want to point out that April 21st, last Friday, was the end of Ramadan, otherwise called Eid al-Fitr.
00;00;58;07 - 00;01;17;24
Ryann Tanap
And for those who aren't aware, Ramadan is observed by Muslims around the world and they fast from dawn to sunset during this month. And then at sundown, that's when they break their fast with what's called Iftar. So just some fun facts there, something to note about April.
00;01;17;29 - 00;02;00;04
Vabren Watts
You know, MENA, which means Middle East/North Africa, has really been in the news lately, especially as it relates around, like, collecting data demographics around, like, the next, you know, 2030 census. The federal government is actually thinking about adding MENA to a separate category other than White, actually having their own category listed as a race. And Ryann, for this month, actually, there was a deadline to provide thoughts on a proposal to change race and ethnicity, particularly as it relates to MENA, as well as another race and ethnicity, changing Hispanic from ethnicity to race.
00;02;00;09 - 00;02;03;07
Vabren Watts
You know, that could really have a major shift in the demographics.
00;02;04;03 - 00;02;26;10
Ryann Tanap
Right, and like, currently, Middle Eastern, North African, like, of just of those descents, like, you have to categorize yourself as White because there is no category for you. So that, I think, that'll really help with like disaggregating data which will eventually, you know, impact health policy and, you know, the communities that are served. So that's a great thing to point out.
00;02;26;17 - 00;02;50;15
Vabren Watts
Yes. And I think the last time they really did this shift was I know, because, you know, I've been big on, you know, you talk a lot about like data and things along those lines. I think the last time that that happened, it was actually separating Asian American and Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander, which happened sometime, I guess, at the turn of the century within the early 2000s.
00;02;50;15 - 00;03;01;29
Vabren Watts
And now those are two separate races on the census. And I know, you know, this is timely because in May we have another cultural observance month coming up.
00;03;02;21 - 00;03;31;27
Ryann Tanap
That's correct. May is Asian-American Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. A lot of words there, big acronym, but just some history about the month. So there are 24 million people of Asian descent and 1.7 million people of native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander descent in the U.S. And it actually started off as an observance for one week, and it was called the Asian Pacific American Heritage Week.
00;03;32;24 - 00;04;11;21
Ryann Tanap
Congress created it in 1978, and it coincides with the arrival of the first Japanese immigrants in 1843 May of that year, and Chinese workers and their role in building the Transcontinental Railroad, which was completed in May 1869. So another key fact about Asian American history there, and also this is not as well known, but Filipinos and other Asian ethnicities were actually first recorded or first documented to arrive in the U.S. in the 16th century.
00;04;12;03 - 00;04;29;00
Ryann Tanap
A lot of them were slaves or prisoners on ships sailing from New Spain or Mexico, you know, due to Spanish colonization. So now it's observed over the period of a month, and Congress expanded that in 1992. So, yeah, it's really exciting.
00;04;29;12 - 00;04;50;26
Vabren Watts
You know, that is exciting. You know, I would say, you know, by the time 1992 came around, I was in school from probably elementary, middle school, somewhere around that age. And, you know, as I as I think about it, there really wasn't that much history around Asian Americans or Native Hawaiians or Pacific Islanders when I was in school.
00;04;50;26 - 00;04;57;27
Vabren Watts
And I wonder, you know, if it's even, you know, the same, you know, like that now. We really do not get that exposure.
00;04;57;28 - 00;05;25;08
Ryann Tanap
Right. I mean, it wasn't when I was in school either. Maybe in college, there were some courses that you could take depending on, you know, the school that you're at. But there wasn't an Asian-American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander class when I was in college, which is fascinating. And it's a shame that, you know, I didn't get to learn about, you know, my own cultural heritage until like doing my own research and like, beyond college.
00;05;26;01 - 00;05;49;21
Vabren Watts
So, like, knowing that, you know, Ryann, you know, you do, you oversee like health equity, education. And one of that is really, you know, making sure that these voices are elevated. And we called it Elevated Voices. And this, Ryann, this is before you were here. It's just elevating those voices that have been like silent and like those different cultures that have been silent or may have been left out of the conversation.
00;05;49;21 - 00;05;51;03
Vabren Watts
So what are we doing this month?
00;05;51;12 - 00;06;18;08
Ryann Tanap
In honor of May, Asian-American Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, We're doing a campaign on social media and also on our Health Affairs Today newsletter. Definitely subscribe to that. We'll be elevating voices and organizations who've made an impact on health policy and equity specifically pertaining to this particular population Asian-Americans, Native Hawaiians, Pacific Islanders. So keep an eye out for that.
00;06;18;10 - 00;06;26;23
Ryann Tanap
That will feature some of our authors from their publications in Health Affairs and other organizations. Something I'm looking forward to, at least for this month.
00;06;26;28 - 00;07;14;29
Vabren Watts
We also plan to highlight some books for people to learn more about Asian-American and Native Hawaiian Pacific Islanders. And one book and I know you and I talked about this, and it was by Ronald Takaki. The book was written somewhere between I’d say 1995 and the early 2000s. But this book taught me so much about, you know, the Asian-American experiences in this country, and it's called Strangers From a Different Shore, where it really talks about like Angel Island, which was the Ellis Island of the West, when, you know, Asian-American immigrants, you know, came over to the country, to this country a long time ago, as well as, and then you recommended
00;07;14;29 - 00;07;25;06
Vabren Watts
some books by Erika Lee called The Making of Asian America. And then also George Takei with this book, They Called Us Enemy.
00;07;25;29 - 00;07;56;00
Ryann Tanap
Yeah, those are some really great reads when learning about the Asian American Pacific Islander, Native Hawaiian diaspora. There's one more that I wanted to bring up. So there's actually a book called Hawaii Story by Queen Liliuokalani, and she was actually the last monarch of Hawaii. And in her book, she talks about how American and European businessmen forced her to abdicate the throne and that eventually, you know, Hawaii becoming a state.
00;07;56;02 - 00;08;20;21
Ryann Tanap
You know, U.S., the 50th state of the United States. So really interesting read there. Definitely check it out. To dig more into this in observation of this month, so going into more of what we've been up to, kind of circling back to that, our team is really, you know, focused on showcasing and advancing equity and highlighting health equity.
00;08;20;28 - 00;08;29;23
Ryann Tanap
So I know that you've been up to quite a lot the past month, Vabe. What conferences have you been visiting?
00;08;30;00 - 00;09;03;20
Vabren Watts
You know, so I've been to a couple of conferences. I first took a trip to Harvard to actually provide a review of a paper that they published on the impact of anti-racist change within hospital systems. I mean, it was great. We will provide a link for you on that. But basically it is about like three hospitals that have actually taken a step to actually do anti-racism change prior to the pandemic.
00;09;03;23 - 00;09;24;20
Vabren Watts
They want to make sure it was prior to the pandemic so they can see, like, overall, like from inception to implementation, to like the results that they found. And one of the things that actually stuck out was that when it came to metrics, the metrics of like all three of those hospitals, when it came to advancing equity, sort of dropped off a little bit.
00;09;24;21 - 00;09;50;15
Vabren Watts
They didn't do like really the evaluations, but it is really a great paper that was written by Angel Rodriguez. And so, like I said, really look at the show notes and we'll provide that link to that report on there. Also, I was at the National Minority Quality Forum, which was a great conference. And you know what, Ryann? You know what subject came up a lot.
00;09;51;20 - 00;09;52;07
Ryann Tanap
What's that?
00;09;52;12 - 00;10;15;02
Vabren Watts
Actually, it was like race and ethnicity categorizations. I mean, this is like really a hot topic right now. And so we are, you know, you know, the reports, I think, the reports of the past ten years is, you know, has been saying that, you know, the United States will probably be a, what they say, the phrase, a majority minority country come 2050.
00;10;15;02 - 00;10;36;19
Vabren Watts
But it looks like now as people are talking, that will be sooner than, you know, then. And so like they were talking about, you know, data gathering, you know, how it can really inform how a specific population is doing. And it needs to be done at all levels, including the federal level, like, you know, the Census Bureau and, you know, things along those lines.
00;10;36;19 - 00;10;58;29
Vabren Watts
And also Blue Cross Blue Shield is doing a big push for payers to collect data on race, ethnicity and gender and things along those lines. You know, one of the speakers who was speaking at that session said, you know, you know, it's important that we collect this. But he said, you just can't, you know, data your way, you know, out of racism.
00;10;59;07 - 00;11;22;01
Vabren Watts
You know, you must also educate people on why it is important. So that's, you know, something that we're trying to do at Health Affairs, like we have these programs, but then we have, well, you, to come along and be like, hey, this is why, you know, this is important. And then I took a trip to St. Louis. I was at Washington University, which is a beautiful campus, by the way.
00;11;22;01 - 00;12;06;26
Vabren Watts
This is my first time in St. Louis, and it was actually a conference on advancing equity in scholarly publishing, and it included other journals who are really dedicated to really advancing health equity. And so, you know, and so we're really trying to, you know, advance equity. Going to these conferences is amazing. One of the things that I did like about going to these conferences, actually, that everyone is about fellowship programs, and those fellowship programs include, like, how are we building up the next generation of like scholars in particular areas in, like, in particular scholars who belong to historically marginalized groups such as women, such as people of color.
00;12;07;03 - 00;12;40;02
Vabren Watts
And so, you know this was a very important topic that was like mentioned all throughout, you know, that conference with the other journals. And it just made me think that, hey, we have, you know, a fellowship program that is going on now, which started in 2022. And I am proud to say that we have our first fellow actually to publish a paper from that first cohort, and that is Andrew Anderson, who has a paper coming out in the May issue of Health Affairs.
00;12;40;09 - 00;13;05;01
Vabren Watts
So you really have to keep an eye out for Dr. Andrew Anderson's paper. Not only that, he is also doing a Forefront article and he is a guest on a “A Health Podyssey” episode that you all need to subscribe to. And also a guest on one of our Lunch and Learns, which is talking about how we've been advancing equity in Health Affairs over the past couple of years.
00;13;06;08 - 00;13;25;05
Ryann Tanap
That's great. Yeah, I'm super excited for Andrew's, all of his content coming out in May. I'm really excited to also, like, celebrate and elevate his work as he's the first fellow that we have, you know, publishing a paper with Health Affairs. And that's great. I mean, we just started the fellowship last year, so clearly we're making a change.
00;13;25;27 - 00;13;40;15
Ryann Tanap
Well, I guess we could wrap up here. Thank you so much for listening to another episode of Health Affairs This Week. If you like the podcast, please tell a friend, leave a review or subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts.
00;13;41;27 - 00;13;42;22
Vabren Watts
I'm Vabren Watts.
00;13;43;07 - 00;13;46;03
Ryann Tanap
And I'm Ryann Tanap. Bye.