"New York Borrows A Health Care Idea From Africa" - Joanne Kenen
In Africa and India, the idea of using lay health care workers was born of necessity. Manmeet Kaur, founder of City Health Works in Harlem realized that using community health care workers would also fill a real gap in American health care, where all too often patients with chronic conditions like heart failure and diabetes are released from the hospital with little follow-up and few options when problems arise except go right back to the ER. Unlike sub-Saharan Africa, Upper Manhattan is rich in hospitals, medical schools and pricey specialists. But it’s poor in effective community-based primary care, particularly the kind of care that can reach into kitchens and living rooms of patients. With encouraging early data on patient outcomes and financial stability, City Health Works has emerged as a promising approach that differs from a lot of other health coaching or community groups. It was co-designed with clinicians in its community, from places like The Mount Sinai Hospital, who are open to a team-based approach and understand that peer workers can sometimes reach where a physician cannot. “It unburdens us,” said Gary Burke, MD, assistant professor of medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and chief of general medicine at Mount Sinai St. Luke’s, who works closely with Kaur’s team. “They come from the community; with a different perspective … They speak the language. And they can look in the refrigerator.”
- Gary Burke, MD, Assistant Professor, Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Chief, General Medicine, Mount Sinai St. Luke’s
- Prabhjot Singh, MD, PhD, Director, Arnhold Institute for Global Health, Chair, Department of Health System Design and Global Health, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai