The child health care field is embracing a shift from the traditional child-focused model of well and sick visits to a more upstream preventive, holistic, and anti-racist focus on children, their families, and the systems and communities they interact with regularly. Despite a growing desire to improve care delivery, many practices face barriers, such as time and funding resources, which prevent the scale and spread of practice transformation.

This webinar, hosted by the Center for Health Care Strategies (CHCS) with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, explored the need to transform child health care from three unique perspectives — pediatricians, a family advocate, and a children’s health clinic director. The featured speakers — Renée Boynton-Jarrett MD and Ben Danielson MD, pediatrician; Hala Durrah, MTA, patient and family engagement consultant and advocate; and Carey Howard, MPH, program director at a pediatric clinic — serve as advisors for CHCS’ Accelerating Child Health Transformation initiative, which seeks to accelerate the adoption of key strategies necessary to advance anti-racist and family-centered pediatric practice. They highlighted key strategies for child health care transformation: (1) adopting anti-racist practices and policies to advance health equity; (2) co-creating equitable partnerships with patients, families, and medical care teams; and (3) identifying family strengths and health-related social needs to promote resilience.

YouTube video

Agenda

I. Welcome and Introduction

Speaker: Armelle Casau, PhD, Senior Program Officer, CHCS

A. Casau welcomed participants and provide an overview of the webinar and the Accelerating Child Health Transformation initiative.

II. Framing Remarks

Speaker: Renée Boynton-Jarrett, MD, Pediatrician, Boston Medical Center and Founding Director, Vital Village

R. Boynton-Jarrett shared remarks on how dignity is foundational to adopting anti-racist practices, co-creating equitable partnerships, and promoting family resilience.

III. Promoting Anti-Racism in Child Health Care from a Pediatrician’s Perspective

Speaker: Ben Danielson, MD, Clinical Professor, Department of Pediatrics, University of Washington School of Medicine and Pediatrician, University of Washington Medicine

B. Danielson discussed the critical opportunity to reimagine child health care, informed by his more than 20 years’ experience working as a pediatrician in Seattle. He talked through the concept of abundance that can unlock the transformation in pediatrics for which we are collectively striving.

IV. Benefits of Co-Creating Equitable Partnerships with Patients, Families, and Medical Care Teams

Speaker: Hala Durrah, MTA, Patient and Family Engagement Consultant and Advocate

H. Durrah shared her perspective as a patient and family engagement advocate. She discussed the importance of co-creating equitable partnerships between patients, families, and medical care teams as critical to transforming how pediatric care is delivered, as well as strategies for meaningful engagement.

V. A Systems Approach to Identifying Strengths and Addressing Health-Related Social Needs

Speaker: Carey Howard, MPH, Program Director, Center for the Urban Child and Healthy Family, Boston Medical Center

C. Howard described the essential nature of taking a systems approach when reimagining pediatric care. She highlighted strategies for the care team to work alongside families to identify their strengths and health-related social needs as a part of a routine pediatric visit.

VI. Moderated Q&A

Moderator: Hannah Gears, MSW, Program Officer, CHCS