Episode 31 Vote Health 2020 and Engaging Physicians in Action to Shape Policy

Mount Sinai Health Partners

Stella Safo and Saranya Loehrer discuss the role of physicians and other healthcare providers in helping shape policy by taking a more active role in the voting process AND by having those discussions with their patients. Topics of disparities in healthcare and the exacerbation of those disparities in COVID are also discussed. See bios below: https://www.votehealth2020.com Dr. Stella Safo is a HIV primary care physician with experience in clinical transformation and healthcare redesign within Mount Sinai Health System and Premier Inc, where she respectively serves as an Assistant Professor and Strategic Advisor. Dr. Safo received her medical education from Harvard Medical School and a masters degree in public health with a focus on global health at the Harvard School of Public Health; she completed a residency in Primary Care and Social Medicine at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, New York followed by an HIV fellowship from the HIV Medical Association. Her research areas focus on qualitative analyses of healthcare delivery to vulnerable populations around the world. Saranya Loehrer is the founder of VoteHealth 2020, a growing non-partisan coalition of health professionals collaborating to increase the number of our peers and patients registered – and voting safely – this November. In addition, Saranya serves as the Head of Innovation at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and a leader of IHI’s Leadership Alliance, a group of 50+ leading US health care executives working courageously and collaboratively to deliver on the full promise of the Triple Aim. Prior to joining IHI, Saranya worked for Physicians for Human Rights, leading global and domestic grassroots advocacy efforts to create more just and scientifically sound HIV/AIDS policies. She received her MD from Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine, where she was an Albert Schweitzer Fellow, and her MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health, where she was a Zuckerman Fellow.