Courtesy of Morehouse School of Medicine
Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM) has recently launched a collaboration with the Deloitte Health Equity Institute (DHEI), leveraging a $1.1 million gift from DHEI to drive efforts related to workforce development and maternity care. This gift is a part of Deloitte’s larger $1.5 billion commitment over the next 10 years to organizations that are demonstrating impact, innovation, and the ability to help advance equity. The first phase of the MSM and DHEI collaboration will focus on addressing the underlying causes of health inequities, including the lack of representation among care providers and the need for new, innovative models to advance health equity for racially and ethnically diverse women and birthing people.
With support from DHEI, MSM will establish a Center for Workforce Inclusion and Excellence and expand its Center for Maternal Health Equity, creating a scalable culturally humble care training platform for healthcare providers, educating patient navigators, and increasing maternal home-based blood pressure monitoring for patients.
“Morehouse School of Medicine has a long tradition of leading the creation and advancement of health equity in impactful, innovative ways,” said MSM President and CEO Valerie Montgomery Rice, MD, FACOG. “By strengthening our relationship with the Deloitte Health Equity Institute, MSM will train an increased number of healthcare providers and reach even more of the most medically vulnerable and historically underserved patients, which will substantially improve the health and wellbeing of countless individuals and communities, reaching people where they are with what they need.”
“We are thrilled to support Morehouse School of Medicine along this important journey to impact the lives of Black and Brown women and birthing persons,” said Deloitte’s US Chief Health Equity Officer, Kulleni Gebreyes, MD. “We know that reducing mortality and disparities in health outcomes can have a multiplier effect that uplifts many aspects of people’s lives — including their housing, food, and financial security. The work underway at Morehouse School of Medicine will help spread awareness across the country to activate change in the healthcare ecosystem to improve the lives of families and communities in which they live.”
The Center for Maternal Health Equity was established at Morehouse School of Medicine in 2019 to urgently address the disparate rates of maternal mortality and morbidities among Black women and birthing persons in Georgia and across the US. The Center’s mission is to pursue equity in maternal health by building and strengthening community-academic partnerships, developing a competitive translational research program, and offering interdisciplinary and professional training. The Center works collaboratively to address the maternal health crisis, incorporating lessons learned from the lived experiences of Black women and birthing persons with expertise from leaders in community health and wellness, policy, public health, bioinformatics, biomarkers, cardiology, OB/GYN, machine learning/artificial intelligence, behavioral sciences, and legal epidemiology.
“Health disparities are costing lives – that’s both unquestionable and inexcusable. We know it from the data and from firsthand accounts of the people we work with,” said Natalie Hernandez, PhD, MPH, Executive Director of the Center for Maternal Health Equity. “Despite the scale of the problem, we are diligently creating concrete solutions, and thanks to this DHEI funding, we will be able to help close the gap in maternal morbidity and mortality rates between non-Hispanic Black and non-Hispanic white people.”
“At Deloitte, we believe that equity is at the core of a better future – and we are dedicated to making an impact that matters in our local communities,” said Ed Heys, Atlanta and Birmingham Managing Partner, Deloitte LLP. “In collaborating with Morehouse School of Medicine, we intend to effect long-term and systemic change to make health more equitable in the Atlanta community and beyond.”
Concurrently, the establishment of the Center for Workforce Inclusion and Excellence at Morehouse School of Medicine will build upon the More in Common Alliance (MICA), a 10-year, $100 million partnership with CommonSpirit Health to expand and strengthen the health equity workforce in the United States through undergraduate and graduate medical education. The new MSM Center for Workforce Inclusion and Excellence will pursue several initiatives that aim to create standard materials and practices for culturally humble care, research, and education models; establish protocols for addressing racism and bias in health analytics; develop and support programs to diversify the healthcare and biomedical workforce; advocate and program for addressing the digital divide and broadband disparities; and develop models that will support the wellness, resiliency, and advancement of diverse faculty and trainees.
For more information about Morehouse School of Medicine, please visit MSM.edu.
About Morehouse School of Medicine
Founded in 1975, Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM) is among the nation’s leading educators of primary care physicians, biomedical scientists, and public health professionals. An independent and private historically-Black medical school, MSM was recognized by the Annals of Internal Medicine as the nation’s number one medical school in fulfilling a social mission — the creation and advancement of health equity. MSM faculty and alumni are noted for excellence in teaching, research, and public policy, as well as exceptional patient care. MSM is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award doctoral and master’s degrees.
About Deloitte Health Equity Institute
Recognizing the imperative for immediate and sustained effort, and grounded in Deloitte’s acknowledgement of racism as a public health crisis, Deloitte established the Deloitte Health Equity Institute (DHEI) in spring 2021. DHEI is dedicated to creating public good through community collaboration and investment, data and analytics, and knowledge development. DHEI builds on Deloitte’s commitment to advance health equity, informed by work with clients, a decade of impact made by the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions, and our perspective on how life sciences and health care organizations can activate health equity. The DHEI reinforces our purpose of making a positive, enduring impact that matters. By collaborating with local and national organizations, DHEI is a catalyst, helping advance health equity at scale. Our initiatives aim to help everyone achieve their full potential in all aspects of health and well-being, building a more equitable society for all.
