There can only be health equality once there is health equity.
This episode of Everyone Hates Healthcare is a jaw-dropping conversation with Burgess Harrison, Executive Director of the National Minority Health Association, about eliminating the healthcare disparity gap experienced by minorities. As an answer to how to provide every single person with the best possible healthcare outcomes, the NMHA came up with the Patient Activation Measure (PAM). This scale looks at each person’s willingness and capabilities to take charge of their health and determines how to treat each patient. When living with limited funds, healthcare can often find itself at the back of our priority list, and PAM is a way to help healthcare organizations look out for patients. Burgess discusses primary care alternatives, technology, accessibility, teamwork, and health policymaking as crucial subjects to consider along the journey to making a change.
Tune in to this episode and learn how healthcare delivery has to change to make health equity a reality for minority communities!
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Burgess Harrison, MBA, brings a wide breadth of expertise to the National Minority Health Association. He comes with more than 25 years of home health, home care, electronic visit verification, and telehealth technology experience. He is a pioneer in electronic visit verification and possesses a unique understanding of the market and the issues patients and providers face. Burgess is an educator, former adjunct professor, marketing executive, and software business founder who happens to be a unique perspective on minority health. As an Albino with low vision from two black parents, Burgess leads the association with a unique personal healthcare journey and understands the impact of the lack of access as a child, as well as being an experiment or “lab project” for healthcare professionals. He is the co-founder of Statchek, Inc. a pioneer in electronic visit verification in-home care (acquired by Wipro NYSE: WIT), and Ankota LLC, a SaaS home care technology company.
Having a family that has received home care and assisted living as well as elderly relatives afflicted with PICKs and dementia, Burgess is acutely aware of the issues that face minority and disadvantaged Americans when they need simple and complex medical services. Burgess has developed innovative and forward-thinking programs for non-profits as he served on the boards of the American Red Cross of South Central Connecticut and Shoreline Foundation (S.A.R.A.H.). This is Burgess’s passion. He developed the concept for Operation Healthy You and after a year of development, Dr. Dalton saw the potential and joined forces to bring it to life in the NMHA.
