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No state has fallen further than Kansas in America’s Health Rankings. We used to be 8th in 1991.
Why did we slip so far down in the rankings? The answer might surprise you; it’s based on a leadership challenge.
At the Kansas Health Foundation, our bold vision is to make Kansas the healthiest state in the nation and to do so, this movement must be powered by Kansans in positions of authority and influence to shift Health outcomes.
Starting with the launch of the 2025 publication, Leading Health, written by President and CEO of the Kansas Health Foundation, Ed O’Malley, this podcast aims to break down key concepts of this leadership challenge and actionable ways that we can work together to make a real impact on Health in Kansas.
In each episode, Ed O’Malley, and Senior Advisor at Kansas Health Foundation, Susan Kang, will highlight a chapter in the book and discuss with Kansans who are actively engaged in expanding our definition of Health.
Leading Health is an invitation to move the needle on Health in Kansas, and we invite you to join us in leading the way.
Ep01
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[00:00:00]
Welcome to the Leading Health Podcast
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Ed O'Malley: Hello, welcome to the first episode of the Leading Health Podcast. My name is Ed O'Malley. I serve as president and CEO of the Kansas Health Foundation.
Introducing the Hosts and the Book
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Ed O'Malley: This podcast series is all about this [00:01:00] book Leading Health, how You and 30,000 Kansans Help Communities Thrive. And throughout this whole series, I'm gonna have my colleague Susan Kang with me.
Hello Susan.
Susan Kang: Hi Ed, how are you?
Ed O'Malley: I am fabulous. Thank you. Susan. Of course, you serve as senior advisor here at the Kansas Health Foundation. You have a long history in health in Kansas and we've worked together for a long, long time. Mm-hmm. In different capacities. I'm really excited to get this podcast going with you.
We're gonna have a good time.
Susan Kang: Me too. I'm really excited about it.
The Vision Behind the Podcast
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Ed O'Malley: You know, the book was a big, nutty idea of the Kansas Health Foundation. Right. Let's create a book. Mm-hmm. That makes the case for why health. Matters in Kansas, why we need to rally around health in Kansas. The book introduces some different ways of thinking about health, looking into that later.
But the book was a massive, is a massive project of the Kansas Health Foundation. And then we had this idea of let's create a podcast [00:02:00] to be a companion to the book, knowing that some people might. Come to these ideas through the podcast, some might come to through the book, but here we are. The podcast is becoming a reality now.
Susan Kang: Yeah. Well, I love, I love that we're starting the podcast.
I'm really excited about bringing to life the themes in the book and some of the real big takeaways that are different than the usual way that we think about health. And so I'm kind of really excited about digging into that. And I, you know, and I really invite the listeners to, you know, maybe join us throughout the whole.
21 episodes that we're gonna have, right. One for each chapter in the book. And hope that, you know, they get as excited about this. As, as I know we are,
Ed O'Malley: We are very excited about it. You and I have never co-hosted a podcast together, but we're gonna have a good time doing this together.
Susan Kang: Well, it's my first time ever. Well, it's,
Ed O'Malley: it's gonna be fabulous. And one thing that I'm excited about is. The book was written to be very accessible. It's very short. It's a very quick read, as [00:03:00] you know. Mm-hmm. We wrote it that way on purpose. We wanted this to be a resource for Kansans, especially the 30,000.
We'll talk about the 30,000 later. Right. But we wanted this to be a resource for Kansans to help them make more progress on things they care. The most about which we know those things all connect to health, the way we define health, right? Yes. The, the things that Kansans, who are involved in their communities, who are serving on city councils, who are on the school board, who are community-minded, business people, the things they're working on, connect to health, the way we think about it, the book is a resource for them in this podcast.
We'll be as well. You know, I know we're gonna talk in a little bit about the first chapter, but we'll set that up here in just a minute. Let's, let's stay on the book for a moment.
Structure of the Book
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Ed O'Malley: The book has three parts to it, and part one is really about the state of health in Kansas. Mm-hmm. And what's happened the last 30 or so years, by the way, listeners, it hasn't been [00:04:00] great.
What's happened more on that to come. Yeah. Part two of the book is really the surprise. It's like a surprise. It's not a health challenge, it's a leadership challenge and here's why. Yeah. And part three of the book is really the prescription, right? So if part three is here, here's what we need more Kansans to do.
So we're gonna cover the whole book. During these 21 episodes, and it's gonna be a resource for people and fun for you and me and for the guests.
Conversation Catalysts
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Ed O'Malley: We're gonna have on Let, let, let's, but we're, we're approaching guests a little differently, so we're calling them Conversation Catalyst, and maybe we should talk for a minute as to why that's what we're calling these guests we're gonna have with us.
Why does that feel important to you?
Susan Kang: Well, I mean, I think they're. Conversation catalysts because they're gonna help us to see how some of the themes, some of the points that are made in the book can come alive and how they've been applying some of those themes, I think, in the work already.
All toward helping us [00:05:00] honestly lead the nation in health. So I think, that'll be really interesting to hear from the guests who are. In all different aspects of life, not just healthcare, but, you know, health writ large and you're gonna find out more about this, which I'm really excited for you to find out more about.
So, I think the guests will help us to bring to life some of the points that we're trying to make in this book.
Ed O'Malley: Yeah. And so there are five conversation catalysts, and so the listeners are gonna. Get a chance to get to know these guests, so it's not like a one and done.
It's not like there's one guest and then we never see them again. And the point of the talking to that guest is to learn all about their story. No, the right. The point here is these five guests will be joined by one, and most episodes will be joined by one today. It's just you and me, right? But future episodes will be joined by one of those guests, and the point is for them to help.
Bring to life the chapter. And these are, these are five great people full introduction to come on each of them. But there are five amazing Kansans who are each involved in different ways in making [00:06:00] the state a better place.
Susan Kang: I'm excited to talk with every one of them.
Ed O'Malley: We're gonna have a good time.
Anything else on the overall book or overall podcast series, Susan, that we should make sure we land before we. Get into today's topic.
Susan Kang: No, I think this is a good start. I think we can be, digging into the book now.
Ed O'Malley: Okay. Tee up the tee up the episode today. Then the chapter today we're talking about.
Yeah,
Capital H Health vs. Lowercase Health
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Susan Kang: so this chapter really illuminating sort of the difference between lowercase health. Health with a small H and health with a Big H. So uppercase health. I love how we start the book with a an example of you going to the University of Kansas Health System and having the experience that you did. Mm-hmm. And I want you to talk a little bit about that and you also talk about sort of the up into the right metric and what that means.
So
Ed O'Malley: The book starts with the story of, of me driving back from. The Univers, university of Kansas Health System, their main hospital right in Kansas City, [00:07:00] Kansas. And it was this amazing day and it's basically like a field trip. Like they put on this kind of day long field trip experience for about 10, 12, 15 Kansans at a time. Yeah. And they're handpicking these Kansans and there are some elected officials, there are some prominent business people.
Folks like that that are being invited. They're coming to the main campus for a day. The point of the experience from the health system's perspective is to showcase the University of Kansas Health system. Mm-hmm. Like showcase what they are capable of. And by the way, it's an amazing health system.
I'm biased 'cause I've been connected to it for a long time, but it is an incredible turnaround story. It was one of the worst hospitals in America 25, 30 years ago. It's now one of the best. So it was an incredible day. But I'm driving back and I'm reflecting on the day and I'm reflecting on all the things I learned.
And it was incredible. Like I, I got [00:08:00] to be on the helipad when a stroke patient. A pretend stroke patient. Yeah, yeah. You know, but it was like a simulation. It felt very real to me. When a, when a stroke patient landed and then, was wheeled to the operating room, the special stroke bay where they were able to go in and take a blood clot out of the patient's brain.
And I'm right there like bedside for that. And I know as a simulation, but it felt real to me. Yeah. And I was sweating and I was nervous and it was incredible. Or other things like. The emergency room, right? Being there. And we learned all about how they deal with trauma victims. And, you know, unfortunately the number of trauma victims keeps increasing, right?
In fact, they had to increase the size of the emergency room recently, this massive renovation, which was a beautiful space, and those doctors and nurses and professionals and patients. Need that space, but it was this amazing day. And anyway, I'm driving [00:09:00] home and I'm thinking about it all. And one thing I, I remembered was that every stop along the field trip, the doctors we were talking to, in essence, we're telling a version of the same story.
Yeah. That everything is going up and to the right like that on a graph like that means it's getting worse, right? Like there are more stroke victims every year there are more trauma victims. Every year there are more cancer diagnoses. Every year, and one thing I did during that day is I asked everybody I talked to like, why?
Why? Why are things going up and to the right? Why are there more cases of everything? And. What they said in essence was they talked about the environment. They talked about the world that people are living in, the choices that communities and people are making. with the cancer diagnoses, yes genetics can play a little bit of [00:10:00] role, but the huge surge of cases the doctors were saying in essence is because of like the environment mm-hmm.
And the choices people are making it just got me thinking about how little healthcare has to do with health.
Versus all these other things, right. That create or contribute to the environment where health takes place. Does that make sense? Is that
Susan Kang: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know, I think most people think sometimes, especially with things like cancer, that it's just genetics and you can't really do anything about it.
But we do know that there's research that indicates that that's only one component.
Ed O'Malley: Yeah.
Susan Kang: Right. Yeah. And it really is the environment. So I love that you're learning more about this Directly from these doctors who are talking about the environment too, not just about the procedures that they're doing.
Ed O'Malley: Yeah. Yeah. And there's, I, you know, I wrote this part in the book, most attendees left that experience Impressed and confident about treatments available at the hospital. I left worried. Yeah, I fear [00:11:00] our admiration for brilliant healthcare professionals is distracting us from understanding why our society needs more and more of their brilliance.
I fear our enthusiasm for what we can heal. Is blinding us to what we can prevent. Yeah. It was kinda a big aha. And by the way, those doctors are amazing. That health system is amazing. I am so thankful that is here in Kansas, but I did leave feeling like there's a whole bunch of things have to be done before you ever.
Get to a healthcare facility that impacts health.
Susan Kang: So Ed, what does it really mean for someone to be capital H healthy?
Ed O'Malley: Yeah. You know, that distinction is so important and I really like the way we talked about it in the book. What we, we said in the book is that health with a capital H is your ability to thrive. Lowercase Health is part of [00:12:00] capital H Health.
Mm-hmm. But only a small part. We went on to say Health capital H. Health is everything. It's your kids becoming successful. Your grandkids enjoying happiness, friendship, and love. It's the ability to control your destiny. It is agency over your life. Health. Lower H Health is, healthcare is sick care. Health capital H.
Health is your ability to thrive. That's what we're getting after.
Susan Kang: Yeah, yeah. Which in essence led to the writing of this book, right? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So here we are at the book,
Ed O'Malley: the podcast and everything else. And ultimately I think what we're getting at, especially with this first story that we highlight in the book is that the up and to the right graphs, we're not going to solve that problem.
By waiting till somebody has a stroke and, fixing the stroke faster, right? The up and to the [00:13:00] right, like the healthcare professionals are gonna deal with that the best they can. But we, people who are involved in our communities, people who care about health, who people who care about communities thriving.
We have to work harder and smarter and more strategic to figure out how do we create the conditions for health in the first place. It's a big mindset shift.
Susan Kang: It is, it is a big mindset shift. And I think it's really, really important to talk about. And the way we do this in the book right, is to distinguish between lowercase H Health and capital H Health.
Right. Yeah. So talk a little bit more about the distinctions between the two concepts and why it's so important to. Know that distinction.
Ed O'Malley: Yeah. And you know, we just made that distinction up but we felt we needed some way to help people. Some interesting, maybe a slightly provocative way to help people distinguish [00:14:00] between health.
In healthcare. Mm-hmm. And you and I both worked at the Health Foundation for a while now and we both had so many times where we, you know, tell people we work at the Kansas Health Foundation and they assume we work on healthcare. Right. Or that we are in healthcare and we're not. We love healthcare, but we don't spend our time, right most days talking to doctors and nurses and hospital administrators.
And we, we do some of that, but we have a much broader way of thinking about health. And so in the book, we introduced this idea of capital H Health. Versus lower H Health. Mm-hmm. And lower H Health, we're asserting that's healthcare, which by the way is usually sick care. Right. Most healthcare happens once you're already sick.
Right. Capital H, health, uppercase H Health. We're saying that's everything that goes into your health, right? That's everything that makes up, that's your ability to thrive. [00:15:00] That's the quality of your neighborhood. That's public safety. That's the quality of education that your kids are receiving.
It's economic opportunity, you know, in, some other places, they would use the term, it's the social determinants. Of health. We didn't necessarily use that term in the book, but that's what we're getting at with capital H Health, right? It is much bigger than healthcare and we're really trying to land that early in the book, aren't we?
Susan Kang: 100%. I think that's really, really important because I think most of us don't really think about all the other things that go into health, the capital H health. Right? I mean, so like, you know, for our rural friends, if you don't have access to cable, right?
The fiber lines and you can't have a telehealth, you know, appointment that is part of Big H Health.
Ed O'Malley: That's a great example, right? So broadband access, mm-hmm. Is in essence a part of big H Health. I love it. And not only because of something like a telehealth appointment, but also just it's because of things like it's [00:16:00] hard to be entrepreneurial and start a small business.
And provide for your family if you don't have access to basic technology. And not every place in Kansas, frankly has access to broadband and the way that we do here in urban areas.
Susan Kang: Right, right. You know, and something like transportation, if you don't have, mode to transportation, normally people wouldn't think about transportation as being part of Big H, but you know, we're saying that.
It is, that's all part and parcel, that is part of the health being everything, right?
Ed O'Malley: Yes. Yeah. It's, it's, yeah. We're trying to land this idea that health is bigger than healthcare. That health is inclusive of so many different domains mm-hmm. Beyond healthcare. Mm-hmm. And we start to break some of those down mm-hmm.
In, in the book. But it's things like. Your economic status. Status, right? We, we know your economic status is the biggest determinant of your health,
Susan Kang: right? Your zip code where you live, right?
Ed O'Malley: Oh, okay. Yeah. It's geography, right? Mm-hmm. So we talk about that in the book, that it, it's geography [00:17:00] that zip codes matter, like where you live matters.
In fact, we, we talk about how, you know, the lifespan difference in, in Mission Hills versus Argentine, but those two parts of our state are just. Like literally a few miles apart. And in Mission Hills, the lifespan is 86.7 years in Argentine just a couple miles away. It's 75 point. Yeah. Point one years.
Yeah. Right now we're not saying that we're not saying that's. A simple thing to understand. There's a lot of factors that go into that, but geography is a part of health. Yeah. Right. Um, And we have other examples of other zip codes where those life length discrepancies exist.
So it's a big thing. So we're trying to land that in chapter one. Mm-hmm. Okay. This whole podcast series is gonna be talking about capital H Health, not just. Lower H Health, we're gonna be talking much, much, much more about capital H Health than we are about healthcare, lower H Health. So we need to make sure people understand that in this first [00:18:00] episode for sure.
What else do we need to make sure people understand?
Susan Kang: Yeah. Our health status, right? I know we're gonna talk about this in another chapter. I think it's gonna be chapter three, where we talk about the America's Health rankings. But, you know, one thing we do know is that status of health in Kansas has been declining over the last 35, 36 years.
Yeah. Right? Yeah. Yeah.
The Role of the 30,000
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Susan Kang: so one of the things, you know, since this book is about the 30,000, it's geared toward the 30,000, right. who is really actually responsible for. Improving our health and, getting us back up to where we were, you know, much higher in the health status.
Ed O'Malley: Yeah. I, I think it's many, many years ago. I think the, yeah, that's a big thing. We're trying to land, right? We're trying to land the 30,000, which more on that to come, but in essence, the 30,000 are the movers and shakers of Kansas. Right. The 30,000 are the people who hold authority in their communities, right?
Elected, official, prominent business people pastors, rabbis, [00:19:00] university deans and presidents, school superintendents, right? So the 30,000, we're not saying they are fully responsible for. All aspects of health in Kansas, but we are saying that they have outsized influence on health capital, H health, and they create the conditions often that allow people to make healthy choices.
Or not. And we need the 30,000, those types of Kansans to realize they've got a role to play and we need 'em to play it really, really well. And that's really what the book is all about, is helping them see the problem, helping them see their piece of it, and helping them know how to do their part to move it forward.
Susan Kang: Yeah. And the rest of this book, I think helps us. To figure that out. Right?
Ed O'Malley: Yeah. I think by all means, and it starts with though getting [00:20:00] people to one, think about health, capital H Health versus healthcare, lower H Health, it also starts with. Recognizing that we have fallen in the health rankings.
We'll talk more about that later. But the quick story is we used to be one of the healthiest states in the nation. We fell as low as number 31 a few years ago. Yeah, right. We're trying to turn that around now, but no state has fallen further. Yeah, that's really the distressing in the 35 years that's really distressing to hear.
In these rankings. We'll explain the rankings, where they come from. We'll get all into that in episode three, I believe. Yes. Okay, so that's coming listeners. But I think it could be useful to just mention, we write about this in the book, but we talk about this. This kind of definition of capital H Health from the World Health Organization?
Yes. And I, I think it's good. So I just want, I just wanna read it. The World Health Organization defines health, and we put the capital H on that word. Health in the book [00:21:00] defines health as a state of complete physical, mental, and social wellbeing, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. So like that experience at the health system I was talking about, it was amazing, but it was all about treating disease or infirm.
Infirmity. Yeah. Right. I love that we have that, but it wasn't about this complete physical, mental and social state of wellbeing, which is what we're really after with this capital H Health.
Susan Kang: Yeah. That would be, that's the ideal way. I think to approach health. Yeah. Right. Yeah.
Ed O'Malley: And so I think one thing that we're wanting listeners to think about during this series is, yes, we believe in personal responsibility.
Yes. We believe that people need to make healthy choices. Mm-hmm. And that if they're making unhealthy choices, when healthy alternatives exist mm-hmm. That, you know, shame on them. Or another way of thinking about it [00:22:00] is if the playing field is level. If everybody has the same playing field, if the barriers have been knocked down for different people and the playing field is level, then somebody's health is kind of up to them in their own personal choices.
Mm-hmm. But if the playing field is not level, if some groups have more barriers or hurdles to a healthy life than others, then the 30,000 have some work to do. Mm-hmm. And helping them think about what is that work and how do they do it, is what we're gonna be exploring.
Susan Kang: I love that. I think that's really, really important and with the idea that in the end, people who live in the Argentine neighborhood will have the same opportunity lifespan.
Yeah. And you know, opportunities as the people in Mission Hill, right? Yeah, yeah. What you referred to earlier,
Ed O'Malley: e Exactly, exactly. It's one of those things like we can't guarantee the exact same outcomes for everybody.
Susan Kang: Mm-hmm.
Ed O'Malley: But we should be able to [00:23:00] say everybody has a fair shot.
Susan Kang: Yeah. Right. Yeah. The
Ed O'Malley: playing field is level. Yeah. And we're not there yet. We're gonna explore that over the course of this podcast series.
Conclusion and Next Steps
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Ed O'Malley: We're gonna have some fun while we do it. We're gonna learn from some great conversation catalyst and ideally the book and the podcast. The point behind both of these things is to help more Kansans focus on this idea of capital H Health, and help us rally the state.
To once again be one of the healthiest states in the nation. I think we can pull it off, don't you?
Susan Kang: Well, that's why I'm at the Kansas Health Foundation. ' cause we, I think that we could pull it off
Ed O'Malley: by golly, we better. I love it. I love it. So there
Susan Kang: we are. Thank you, ed, for a great conversation. I really enjoyed it and I hope you, the listeners who are out there right now, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did and we look forward to seeing you at our next episode when we are going to specifically focus on the 30,000 and health, capital H Health before then.
This is what I [00:24:00] encourage you to do. For each of you out there, figure out what your connection to Capital H Health is. Thank you and I look forward to seeing you for our second episode.