What does it take to improve access to specialty care for vulnerable and underserved populations? What if the starting point is a complete lack of specialty care services? When Kim Thiboldeaux, CEO of the Northeast Business Group on Health, was told there was no cancer or specialty care on Native American reservations, her first reaction was shock, then it quickly turned to advocacy and action. After years of hard work and perseverance, the first cancer center on native land was opened on the...
Cancer can be an isolating condition, so Meredith Cowden has made it her mission to ensure other patients are not alone. Meredith, a cancer survivor living with chronic graft versus host disease (cGVHD), responded to adversity by forming the Meredith A. Cowden Foundation with her family to support and advocate for fellow transplant patients. The key to Meredith’s success is her ability to advocate and form a successful alliance of advocacy groups that strengthens their ability to help and adv...
Impact is a word we often use in patient advocacy. We know it’s important to the patients and communities being served, and that it also matters to the funders of advocacy programs. But how do you capture impact, when do you start, where does the information come from, and how should it be communicated? Sanofi host Eric Racine and co-host Elizabeth Franklin discuss this with our guest, Aicha Diallo, patient advocacy leader and senior director of programs at the Patient Empowerment Network (PE...
Building trust and improving health in underserved communities can be a daunting challenge. Most would agree that “it takes a village,” but how do you create that village, and who are the right partners? In this premier episode of “Patient Advocacy Voices,” Sanofi host Eric Racine and his co-host Courtney Peters discuss this challenge with Dr. Laura Lee Hall, a patient advocacy leader and President Emeritus of the National Minority Quality Forum (NMQF) Center for Sustainable Health Care Quali...