A $10 million grant from Scott Rechler, CEO and chairman of RXR, and his wife Debby, aims to tackle health disparities.
The gift to Northwell Health, and its research arm, Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, enables the health system to launch the Scott and Debby Rechler Center for Health Outcomes at Feinstein.
The center aims to support the development of large-scale data models and leverage the latest artificial intelligence tools to identify and address healthcare disparities and patient risk factors to ultimately improve care.
With this gift comes an endowed professorship for health outcomes and the support the recruitment of a data scientist who will help shape the next generation of scientists and forge the path of this field. It will also fund the hiring of health economists and scientists to study and analyze data to identify trends and practices to create improved and more personalized care for patients, according to Northwell.
“Medical research must be focused on creating a solution to a problem,” Michael Dowling, Northwell’s president and CEO, said in a statement.
“Scott and Debby’s leadership support will allow us to address health disparities, overall and in specific communities, in a way that is not being done today and could save millions of lives each year,” Dowling added. “We’re tremendously grateful for their belief in what’s possible through the establishment of this center, which has the potential to influence healthcare reform.”
Leveraging Northwell’s patient database, patient-consented quality of life research, and through AI, the new center will be designed to support researchers and clinicians in their work to identify areas to improve healthcare delivery, accelerate the identification of patterns of health decline in patients, and implement proactive outreach to offer evidence-based treatments, particularly for those in underserved and marginalized communities.
The health system serves 11 million people with more than 2 million patient visits and 5.5 million patient encounter each year. Northwell says that the gift has the potential to disrupt the current healthcare model and address health disparities, rising costs, and lower life expectancies by translating research findings directly into improved clinical care across its service area that would result in healthier communities.
“For too long, our country’s healthcare system has been focused on reacting to illness rather than taking steps to proactively prevent illness,” Scott Rechler, who co-chairs Feinstein Institutes’ board of directors, said in the news release.
“Through the use of data, we can better identify issues early on and proactively drive healthcare outcomes before they become larger problems,” he added. “This data will provide insights that will help inform healthcare protocols as well as public policy to improve the health and wellness of our communities.”
Rechler went on to say that with this initiative, “Northwell will be able to conduct research in ways that have the potential to create a new medical model for the nation.”
Northwell recently launched Northwell Health Vital Sign, a program that comprises a brief quality-of-life questionnaire that will be sent to millions of Northwell patients in their preferred language, regularly over time. With the support of innovative AI technology, this patient-consented and secure data collection will fuel Northwell researchers’ and healthcare leaders’ ability to identify and address concerns hindering patients from achieving their optimal health.
Northwell says Vital Sign will help get people the care they need sooner. The program is designed to act as a research and clinical care model for health systems. It will aim to collect data on equity gaps, building on the work Northwell is already doing. It can be used to inform clinical care practices, and expose where investments – capital, real estate, and clinical – are needed.
r
Adina Genn
Source link