Carnella: Yes. If you have doctors in these underserved areas, how might they get involved in some of the things that are going on in the foundation and in the initiative?
Dr.Graham: So, certainly I think in terms of getting involved in the initiative, they’re going to our website as I mentioned before: www.aetnafoundation.org. We really want to encourage people to go to the website and download the information about how to apply — that’s one. Then, once you go past that and outside this initiative, I think that we’re always looking to work with people who are trying to catalyze and make change happen at a grassroots level.
Carnella: OK. In addition to the actual initiative itself, what are some of the next steps you’re going through after the whole granting funding process?
Dr. Graham: Sure. So, I think apart of this initiative is just showing outcome. After the grant’s awarded, you want to work with the grantees and awardees to help and give them what they need to establish a strong impact story at the local level. What we’re doing with all our funding with this initiative, and others, is we are looking to fund programs that we can track and measure the impact that this initiative has had. The challenge is that we’re going to give folks $750,000 over 3 years to use technology as an intervention to help improve the lives of a local community.
Carnella: In terms of organizations or projects that have been funded currently, what’s the numbers on that?
Dr. Graham: In a prior grant cycle, we funded around 23 folks to do this kind of work. Here with this grant cycle, we’re going to fund a lot less and give people more money and look to fund between 4 and 6 grantees.
Carnella: How did you get involved in becoming the head of the Aetna Foundation?
Dr. Graham: I’m a cardiologist by trade and I’ve spent a lot of time in academics and a little time working in the Federal government. This has always been a passion of mine throughout both, academics and the Federal government, how do we use these kinds of tools and implement behavior change?
Carnella: How about locating mobile access to healthcare using a GPS service. Is there some sort of mechanism or technology that’s going through your initiative to address situations like that?
Dr. Graham: Not necessarily through this initiative, in terms of trying to find access points. Outside of this initiative, our broader enterprise has developed things like the iTriage application, where you can figure out where the nearest doctor for a particular symptom you have is closest to you. There’s a lot of things going on in this arena, but our goal is to kind of apply it to the underserved community.
Carnella: In terms of nutrition, health and things of that nature, I know you were talking about the challenge itself in the initiative for grants. In terms of your overall concept, is there anything that addresses those kinds of topics?
Dr. Graham: Yes. Healthy nutrition is something that we believe is particularly important. As a clinician, I certainly work in public health. I think issues around healthy diet and exercise are very very important; it’s probably the most important thing you can do from birth to the grave that’ll actually improve your risk of getting sick.
Carnella: Some of the older people cannot access, don’t have a cell phone, or at least a cell phone with Internet access. How might they be able to get involved in getting this access available without access to digital networks? In some cases, younger people don’t even have access to Wifi, so how do you address those issues?
Dr. Graham: This activity is certainly along the lines of digital communications. Sometimes, it might not be broadband access; sometimes, it just might be again your handheld access that we see in some communities. Outside of that, though, I think it’s important as you just pointed out, to have the broader conversation about not just being digital tools, but just health care access in general and making sure that people have access to care. This is just one band of activity along the lines of digital health, but certainly it goes beyond that, as you know that.
Carnella: Is there a forum or platform where Aetna Foundation addressed the larger issue of access to digital technology/bandwidth accessibility in underserved/rural demographics?
Dr. Graham: They are issuing grants for people who want to address that problem but that will come out of the grant application. Something they would support but not something that they are currently doing.
Image Credit: Aetna Foundation
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3 Comments
Adanna
January 17, 2015 at 3:23 PMThis is a very insightful interview and I think that targeting young people through mobile devices to share information is smart since most of us spend so much time on our phones. Unfortunately, that may not be as accessible or realistic for older demographics. Eating healthy is definitely important especially in our communities,many of us know and understand this but we don’t have the resources or stick to cultural favorites. I’ll definitely check out the challenge.Thanks for sharing!
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Christine St.Vil
January 17, 2015 at 11:16 PMHi Adanna, thanks so much. I definitely agree, and I’m glad they have some systems in place to make sure the older generation will be able to get the info that they need. But eating healthy is definitely one of the biggest struggles especially for those with lower incomes since it’s generally more expensive to do so.
MJ
January 19, 2015 at 12:07 AMI was just discussing health care and access to information with my best friend over the weekend. I think it is important for providers to reach the people in need by any means necessary. So many people lack the knowledge or resources to get much needed health care.
MJ would like you to check out…Mama Mondays: In Search Of Me Time