Your Environment, Your Transportation, Your Housing: It’s All Related to Your Health
December 13, 2021 Posted by: Eli Lilly and Company
Imagine if where you lived shaved time off your life. The job you held meant your painful illness went untreated. Or the bus route prevented you from going to the doctor for check-ups.
That’s the reality for many Americans. Medical advancements have given us new ways to keep people healthy. But there are still health and health care disparities among racial, ethnic, and other historically marginalized and underserved populations.
Social determinants of health—things like safe housing, transportation, education, access to healthy foods—impact a person’s ability to receive equitable health care and improve health. The COVID-19 pandemic put these challenges in the spotlight.
Closing the gaps in health and health care disparities needs to be addressed in an inclusive and collaborative way. Lilly has partnered with the Network for Excellence in Health Innovation (NEHI) to improve health inequities by focusing on three areas: health care access, data, and digital health and connectivity. In September, Lilly and NEHI teamed up with Avalere health to hold a summit for health care leaders and partners.
The summit’s goal was to identify actionable items to help with this effort. One outcome from the event was “Equity in Health and Health Care: A Roadmap to Collaborative Action,” a plan for how to address these issues head-on across the industry.