07 Mar Innovation Digest – March 2023 Vol. 1

I just finished an excellent meeting with the Mental Health America Board of Directors. I’m grateful to learn from such passionate leaders from across health care and business sectors, who have a common dedication to improving mental health for all. We heard from three affiliates (in Michigan, Buffalo, New York, and Florida) who shared stories of their communities in crisis – the result of historic and perpetual racism, disparities in access, lack of resources, and recent and ongoing violence. As ever, I learned about the strength and resilience of communities, of the deep need for resources and better coordination of systems to ensure people receive care in the midst and aftermath of crises, and of the sustained level of trauma that we continue to ignore and its impact on the mental health of our poorest and most underserved Americans. As I read over the articles below about trends in value-based care and health equity, I’m reminded that the real test of our policies are the stories from the “front line.” The outcomes that tell us we’re spending our resources wisely don’t require a clinical trial or a fancy economic model. Those outcomes are defined by people with lived experience: Am I safe in my community? Can I access health care (which by the way includes mental health) where I need it, when I need it, from people that look like and understand my culture and my needs? Are there supports to ensure that I can afford that care, including for non-medical costs that may be essential to my health and access? I continue to see our willingness to be distracted by the new: new medicines, new digital health and delivery strategies, new facilities, new codes, new labels, new data. What’s often missing is the first-person, lived experience of patients, families and communities that are increasingly damaged by our failure to act. There is growing action to bring these voices to the front of our inquiry about what can improve health and quality of life. It’s time for all the actors with the power — money, education, position, data — to firmly establish that lived experience is the highest expertise in the room.

In this issue:

• Healthcare: No Value Without Equity
• FDA to require diversity plan for clinical trials
• Broadening the Scope of Clinical Trials: The Changing Role of Real-World Evidence
• To Make Lasting Progress on DEI, Measure Outcomes
• Developing National Social Care Standards
• 10 Things to Know About Medicaid Managed Care
• Center on Health Equity & Access: February 2023
• How inflammation in the body may explain depression in the brain
• Value-Based Health Care at an Inflection Point: A Global Agenda for the Next Decade