Connecting with Community

Below is my monthly message for the December 2021 edition of the MHRI newsletter, Focus. You can view Focus articles online at https://www.medstarhealth.org/blog.


Dear Friends and Colleagues,

‘Tis the season for celebrations and precious moments to connect with family, friends, and loved ones. I hope you get to embrace the spirit of self-care and wellness by surrounding yourself with the people and things that bring you the most joy throughout the holiday season. While we need to remain vigilant, the pandemic has also given us a renewed appreciation for the importance of our personal connections and desire to be part of a community.

Being connected to your personal community becomes part of who you are, what you do and ultimately, how you view yourself. Our community is also a key differentiator for us at MedStar Health as we seek to bring together research, education, innovation and excellent patient care as an academic health system. An academic health system expands the traditional concept of an academic medical center by incorporating the importance of health (beyond just medicine) and using the power of an entire system (imbedded in the diverse communities throughout our region) to advance health for all.

As individuals, we seek health and wellness as a key part of preventing disease and avoiding the need for medicine. Similarly as investigators,  we appreciate that overall wellbeing is determined more by social factors (environment, behavior, economics, etc.) then by genetics and clinical care. That’s why we at the Research Institute have committed to investigating social determinates of health in our work to identify better ways to deliver healthcare. It is only through research that is grounded in our community and existing cultural systems, that we can better understand the structural, socioeconomic and civic drivers of different communities’ health and identify what needs to be done to address the disparities that exist. 

In this issue of FOCUS, we examine the disparities of heart disease, HIV and violence.  Whether in Baltimore City, DC, rural America or even on a native American Indian reservation, our investigators are committed to understanding the reason underserved communities are disproportionally affected by illness and devise potential solutions to close these gaps in health, healthcare and wellness.

As we gather for the holidays, I hope you have the opportunity to demonstrate gratitude for your own personal community.  At the same time, I hope you share in the pride of being part of an academic health system that is connecting us to diverse communities and continue to uphold our commitment to advancing health for all.

Happy holidays everyone!

Neil

Read Focus online at MedStarHealth.org/blog.


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