Primary Submission Category: Health equity
Community-Engaged, Interdisciplinary Innovations in Primary Care to Advance Health Equity
Authors: Shelby Wyand, Joanne Odom, Carol Davis, Karey Sutton, Lori Leibowitz, Cristy Geno Rasmussen, Janine Rethy,
Presenting Author: Shelby Wyand*
Background: MedStar Georgetown University Hospital’s Division of Community Pediatrics (DCP), in Washington, D.C., launched an initiative to address systemic health inequities by integrating medical, financial, social, and community-based services. The effort partners with families and local organizations to address food insecurity and the financial health of families.
Setting/Population: The project aims to transform primary care through innovative, scalable models during its planning phase (January 2024–June 2025). It focuses on two programs: Food as Medicine (FAM), which scales an existing intervention to a larger clinic with sustainable financing models, and the MedStar Georgetown Medical-Financial Partnership (MFP), which designs a legal and financial model to address financial health in primary care.
Methods: Using an innovative Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) approach, this interprofessional initiative places community voices at the heart of its design and evaluation. Significant emphasis is placed on the design phase, during which local partners, including families, community organizations, and service providers, actively collaborate to co-create and tailor intervention strategies. A inter-professional team team that includes health equity research, legal advocacy, policy analysis, health economics, and clinical practice works together to develop these models, integrating iterative feedback loops and structured community advisory boards to capture both quantitative outcomes and qualitative insights. This deliberate, inclusive planning process ensures that the interventions are culturally and contextually relevant and sets the stage for long-term sustainability and success.
Conclusions: This project provides a model for the power of a collaborative team in creating innovative, sustainable health service models. Embedding community-driven approaches within primary care promises to improve health equity, resilience, and outcomes for underserved populations.