{"id":313444,"date":"2025-11-25T20:49:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T20:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/313444\/"},"modified":"2025-11-25T20:49:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T20:49:10","slug":"this-season-calls-for-us-to-be-powerful-eqty-2025-event-champions-progress-amid-pressures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/313444\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThis Season Calls for Us to Be Powerful\u201d: EQTY 2025 Event Champions Progress Amid Pressures"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe gather here today, not in spite of pressure, but because of it, because pressure reveals what matters,\u201d said\u00a0Dr. Thea James<\/a>\u00a0in her welcome remarks at\u00a0EQTY 2025: Progress Under Pressure<\/a>, Boston Medical Center Health\u00a0System\u2019s\u00a0third annual summit focused<\/a> on health equity.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That\u00a0notion,\u00a0that pressure can be the spark that creates action, that drives people forward, echoed throughout the one-day conference, hosted at the Renaissance Boston Seaport hotel and convening\u00a0leaders all across the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And the pressures at hand for the healthcare industry?\u00a0It was clear on the stage that they were varied and widespread,\u00a0impacting\u00a0patients, providers, and communities. EQTY 2025 hosted sessions on\u00a0some of the more urgent, including the rise of AI and mistrust in healthcare, the\u00a0cuts to Medicaid,<\/a>\u00a0and longevity<\/a> and the racial mortality gap. But the day\u00a0wasn\u2019t\u00a0focused on detailing the pressures themselves;\u00a0the energy from panelists, keynotes, and BMC speakers\u00a0was dedicated to finding ways to progress amid these challenges, including with panels on forging true cross-sector synergies and looking to our\u00a0past legacies and challenges\u00a0to inform our present.\u00a0<\/p>\n

James had a message\u00a0for those who\u00a0feel complacent, or who feel\u00a0there\u2019s\u00a0nothing people can do among these\u00a0external and internal pressures\u00a0facing our healthcare industry:\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople will\u00a0tell you\u00a0you\u00a0can\u2019t\u00a0boil the ocean. But let me tell you something: We can debunk all of that. We can boil the ocean, and to do it, we need to stop accepting that communities should drown in it,\u201d she said. \u201cThis requires us to fundamentally reexamine, reimagine our role not as healers of individuals, but as architects of equitable thriving communities.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"TheaThea L. James, MD, MBA, Vice President of Mission, Associate Chief Medical Officer addresses the audience at EQTY 2025. (Piper Brown Photography for Boston Medical Center)<\/p>\n

As the day moved into an expert panel on reckoning with cuts to Medicaid, moderator Symone Sanders Townsend\u2014political strategist, commentator, and host of MSNBC\u2019s \u201cThe Weekend\u201d\u2014concisely and poetically\u00a0stated\u00a0what became the driving theme of the day: \u201c\u201cPressure\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0always have to paralyze, folks. It can clarify what matters most.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fighting\u00a0against\u00a0misinformation in healthcare\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of the major pressures facing healthcare that was discussed in\u00a0nearly every\u00a0session of EQTY 2025 was the rise of mis- and disinformation in the age of AI and social media, as well as the distrust of science and medicine.\u00a0In Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms\u2019 keynote Q&A with BMC Health System President and CEO Alastair Bell, MD, she reminded the audience of a common saying: \u201cA lie makes its way around the world before the truth gets out of bed.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mayor Bottoms, former mayor of Atlanta and former senior advisor to the president of the U.S., discussed the repercussions of that dilution of truth.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"CrowdCrowd listens in to virtual remarks from Dr. Anthony Fauci, former Chief Medical Advisor to the President of United States. (Piper Brown Photography for Boston Medical Center)
<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a public health emergency when you can\u2019t get truthful information into people\u2019s hands,\u201d she said. It served both as an echo\u00a0of\u00a0earlier in the day and a prelude to sessions to come. In a welcome video from\u00a0Dr. Anthony Fauci<\/a>, former Chief Medical Advisor to the President of United States, he said,\u00a0\u201cI\u00a0think that misinformation and disinformation, and\u00a0I\u2019m not alone in this, is really the fundamental enemy of good public health.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The pressure of mis- and disinformation and the importance of trust reverberated through the panels on the rise of AI and forging cross-sector synergies.\u00a0In the \u201cOur Health in the Age of AI\u201d panel, experts like Chris\u00a0Boone,\u00a0group vice president of Research Services and Life Science at Oracle,\u00a0underscored how vital inclusive datasets were to building\u00a0trusted,\u00a0equitable\u00a0AI systems. In \u201cUnconventional\u00a0Alliances: Forging Cross-Sector Synergies,\u201d Santiago Lyon, a former war photographer and current head of the Adobe-led Content Authenticity Initiative\u00a0has\u00a0made it his life\u2019s work to combat misinformation and increase transparency in our current environment.\u00a0What has been pushing him forward under pressure is that nonprofits, corporations, and companies across a vast array of industries have been interested in tools that promote transparency and trust.\u00a0He sees a future\u00a0where transparency becomes a standard.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"FromFrom L to R: Petrina Martin Cherry, MBA VP, Community Engagement and External Affairs, BMC Health System; Johanna Jobin, Vice President, Global Head of Environment and Sustainability, Takeda; Binta Beard, Head US Social Impact & Novartis US Foundation President ; Keri Salter-Shahidi, actress, producer, and co-founder of 7th Sun Productions; Santiago Lyon, Head of Advocacy & Education, Content Authenticity Initiative, Adobe. Cross-Sector Synergies: Forging Unconventional Alliances panel. (Piper Brown Photography for Boston Medical Center)<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the corporate space, some of these companies are\u00a0coming up with\u00a0use cases for these \u2018digital nutrition labels\u2019\u00a0\u2026 and\u00a0its\u00a0expansive.\u00a0That\u2019s\u00a0really heartening because, in essence, what\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0developing is a safety tool,\u201d Lyon said about his work on the Content Authenticity Initiative. \u201cSure, it took 40 years for seat belts to become\u00a0standard\u00a0issue\u00a0in cars in this country. Now you\u00a0can\u2019t\u00a0buy a car without a seatbelt.\u00a0We\u2019re\u00a0hoping\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0not going to take 40 years for this technology to get going\u00a0in effect; everything would\u00a0indicate\u00a0that\u00a0we\u2019ll\u00a0see these nutrition labels more widespread than ever before in a shorter amount of time.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was resounding across the day that combatting this misinformation and making any real progress against\u00a0all\u00a0pressures to healthcare requires intentional community collaboration.\u00a0Real change happens when experts stand alongside communities to create solutions together.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"From L to R: Nicol Turner Lee Author, Digitally Invisible: How the Internet is Creating the New Underclass, Founder of the AI Equity Lab, and leading AI expert; Joy Brown, MBA, SVP, Chief Digital Information Officer at BMC Health System; Chris Boone, PhD, MS, FACHE, FHIMSS, Group Vice President, Research Services, Health & Life Sciences at Oracle; Calum MacRae, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School; Karen Wong, MD, MPH, Chief Data Scientist at Epic. Our Health in the Age of AI panel. (Piper Brown Photography for Boston Medical Center)<\/p>\n

In the cross-sector synergies panel, Binta Beard of Novartis U.S. Foundation, spoke about how her company is collaborating with communities on the health needs specific to their neighborhoods\u2013different in each city, and not a one-size-fits-all\u00a0model.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know we\u00a0can\u2019t\u00a0do it alone.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0multiple levels of challenges and constellation of factors, both clinical and nonclinical and at the focus. And the center of that for us is listening to and learning from communities,\u201d Beard said. \u201cThey have answers. They know what their needs are.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the same panel, Takeda\u2019s Johanna Jobin also spoke about co-creating sustainability initiatives with trusted community organizations.\u00a0AI panelists talked about ensuring community input on\u00a0new technologies\u00a0and partnering with underserved communities to ensure that the research data our tools are built on\u00a0are\u00a0inclusive.\u00a0The Medicaid panelists spoke about specific community impacts and the\u00a0needs\u00a0to hear from the voices on the ground on alternative solutions, as well as partnering with community organizations to fill the gaps.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"SymoneSymone Sanders Townsend addresses the crowd at EQTY 2025. Piper Brown Photography.<\/p>\n

These intentional partnerships, the event seemed to say,\u00a0was\u00a0the way to build a foundation of trust. And moving forward against progress would be impossible without trust.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is an element of human connection that\u2019s needed in this [health] industry, unlike any other industry that we have,\u201d said Chris\u00a0Boone\u00a0in his panel on the rise of AI.\u00a0\u201cAnd I think that\u2014getting back to the point of governance and getting back to the point of community engagement\u2014I think it all boils down to trust and transparency.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Standing in your own power<\/p>\n

One of the core tenets of EQTY 2025 was, \u201cif not us, then who?\u201d And while community collaboration and partnerships are core to progress, so is realizing and actualizing our individual powers\u2014according to many panelists across the day.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Perhaps no\u00a0panelist was as clear on this message as Miss Louise, a 90-year-old community member who spoke about her life experience and aging in a panel on longevity.\u00a0She discussed caring for her children, her aging mother, her ill spouse, and how now is a time in her life for self-love and self-care.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen [my husband] passed away 13 years ago, people were saying, \u2018What\u00a0are you going to do?\u2019\u00a0I said, \u2018Just\u00a0find\u00a0out.\u00a0I\u2019ll\u00a0take care of me.\u00a0Don\u2019t\u00a0worry about me,\u2019\u201d\u00a0said Miss Louise. \u201cAnd this is why I love me.\u00a0They found out that\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0taking care of myself, not with anybody else, just me. I\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0have time to fill anybody else\u2019s pill boxes, no pill boxes,\u00a0just about me.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"L to R: Miss Louise Johnson and Demond Martin share thoughts on the panel titled, \u201cWho Gets to Live Longer? Longevity Research, Systems, and Science\u201d (Piper Brown Photography for Boston Medical Center)<\/p>\n

This work against pressures\u00a0isn\u2019t\u00a0easy,\u00a0the audience heard from many different speakers. But standing in this\u00a0self power\u00a0like Miss Louise is something\u00a0that other speakers also spoke about. Dr. Michael Eric Dyson, in a fireside chat, spoke about remembering our legacies and using that as a sort of fuel to progress forward.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have already come through what we have come to. This is not the first time,\u201d he said, speaking to the obstacles and headwinds that many on the stage and in the audience have already faced and pushed through.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Keynote Mayor Bottoms also spoke\u00a0about this\u00a0self power\u00a0when she shared\u00a0her\u00a0path to progress.\u00a0What she said was based on advice she received after her term as mayor of Atlanta.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Keisha Lance Bottoms, former mayor of Atlanta and former senior advisor to the president of the United States takes the stage as the keynote speaker for EQTY 2025. (Piper Brown Photography for Boston Medical Center)<\/p>\n

\u201cWomen push through,\u00a0and they have heart attacks, they have high blood pressure, they have strokes, and they die,\u201d Mayor Bottoms repeated. \u201cPowerful women stop. They feel,\u00a0they process, they learn a lesson,\u00a0and then\u2014and only then\u2014they move on.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd my challenge and advice to each of you, men and women, are you being powerful in this season,\u201d she continued. \u201cI think so many of us have been strong the past few years, but this season I\u00a0truly believe\u00a0calls for us to be powerful. And I just challenge you to ask yourself, are you being powerful? And if not, how do you take that strength and turn it into power?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWe gather here today, not in spite of pressure, but because of it, because pressure reveals what matters,\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":313445,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[14517,23,28480,11181,3,161528,161529,31823,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-313444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-access","tag-america","tag-equity","tag-health-disparities","tag-news","tag-policy-and-advocacy","tag-racial-bias-and-equity","tag-social-determinants-of-health","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}