Health Equity Research & Engagement

A community health worker-led cardiovascular health equity initiative in three anchor communities. The initiative supports medical and social need screening and referrals in community organizations and barbershops, as well as CHECK-IT, a new clinic-based remote patient blood pressure monitoring program.

This coalition provides expert guidance and review on IU Health’s strategic equity initiatives. Additionally serving as a forum to convene, partner, and collaborate among key stakeholders in health equity for Indiana. Members include IU Health’s partners in other hospital systems, city, and state agencies, as well as community organizations representing underserved communities.

In collaboration with several local health systems, the Central Indiana Health Equity Alliance aims to eliminate systemic racism that disproportionately affects Black and Brown communities. The collaborative seeks to improve access to high-quality care for all in central Indiana by working closely with the Indiana Health Information Exhange to collect and report health equity data from the health systems serving Marion County.

A patient support initiative, designed to serve patients of color and other socially vulnerable pregnant people delivering at Riley Maternity Tower. The program provides enhanced labor support to improve patient experiences and health outcomes.

This employee training provides a foundational overview of how trauma and adversity may impact the health and well-being of individuals. Providers and faculty learn and identify how they can use trauma-informed approaches in their roles with patients and team members to reduce the potential for re-traumatization and to promote healing.

A race ethnicity and language (REaL) data quality improvement campaign. The multi-hospital effort, launched at the end of 2022, aimed to better understand the health needs of our patients and the communities we serve. The campaign promoted the collection of race, ethnicity, and preferred language for each patient to ensure care and services are uniquely tailored.

A quality improvement initiative around embedding inclusive SOGI practices within IU Health, including building data infrastructure and educating staff on the benefits of SOGI data collection.

Analytic projects aim to disaggregate, compare, and track measures by payor, ethnicity, age, race, language, and sex (PEARLS) data.

The HEAL-R Collaborative is a partnership between IU School of Medicine; HERE; CTSI, the Regenstrief Institute; and the Irsay Institute at IU Bloomington. Seeking to address health disparities and inequities, HEAL-R creates and environment that values equity research, supports investigators dedicated to advancing health equity, fostering innovative care delivery through community partnerships, and secures sustainable funding to drive impactful initiatives.

This committee provides support, guidance, and oversight to the work within the hypertension/cardiovascular space aimed at improving rates of controlled hypertension. This work is championed by IU Health Offices of Community Health, Health Equity Research and Engagement (HERE), and Cardiovascular Institute.

This committee aims to provide support, guidance, and oversight to the initiatives within the infant and maternal health space. The committee seeks to collectively deploy initiatives to reduce both infant and maternal mortality. The committee is led by Riley Children’s Health, IU Health Offices of Community Health and HERE, as well as Cradle Indy.