The Clinton Health Matters Initiative (CHMI), an initiative of the Clinton Foundation, held its Fifth Annual Health Matters Activation Summit this week.
The Summit brought together 450 leaders in healthcare, public policy, business, technology, education, and professional sports in an action-oriented dialogue on what’s working and what more can be done to improve the health and well-being of communities across the United States.
The Summit, sponsored by Tenet Healthcare Corporation, included plenary discussions led by President Bill Clinton and Clinton Foundation President Donna Shalala on the quest for longevity and our rising death rates, addressing health disparities through technology and innovation, the inclusion of girls and women in sports to improve their health, and how communities and local organizations are driving and developing scalable solutions that are also best suited to meet local needs.
“If we have community-based solutions that involve all stakeholders, we can make a lot of difference,” said President Bill Clinton. “We can’t forget that the shape these challenges take are different from community to community. That is what makes Health Matters’ work to make communities the centers of health innovation so important.”
“The Health Matters Summit provides an opportunity for experts and key stakeholders across sectors to see the progress that is being made in the health community, to learn from one another, and to be inspired by one another,” said Clinton Foundation President Donna E. Shalala.
“There is tremendous work being done in communities around the country to improve our collective health and well-being,” said Rain Henderson, CEO of the Clinton Health Matters Initiative. “Innovation is possible. Technology can power innovation and empower people. But, at the end of the day, nothing is possible without giving people a real sense of purpose and a real sense of community.”
Also this week, the Clinton Foundation hosted a Day of Action at La Quinta High School where more than 75 students, teachers, and parents came together to cultivate a community garden and prepare 150 healthy meals that were donated to the Joslyn Center’s Meals on Wheels program. La Quinta High School offers a culinary arts program that is dedicated to teaching students the culinary arts and preparing them to major in the field in their post-secondary education. The culinary students prepared a healthy lunch for the Day of Action volunteers. La Quinta High School, along with the rest of the Desert Sands Unified School District, is part of the Alliance for a Healthier Generation's Healthy Schools program.
Key announcements from this year’s Summit included:
Adapt Pharma, Limited announced their collaboration with CHMI to offer a free carton of NARCAN (naloxone hydrochloride) Nasal Spray to all high schools in the United States through the state departments of education. This announcement builds off of a 2015 announcement with Adapt Pharma to provide school districts, college campuses, public safety agencies, and community-based organizations access to discounted pricing to Naloxone.
Harvard Health Publications announced a partnership with CHMI to develop an educational platform that builds the capacity of employers and employees to improve health and wellness within the workplace. Goals of the partnership include educating employees about behavioral health risk factors, prevention, impacts on physical health, evidence-based treatment options and outcomes, self-care and methods to overcome barriers to getting care.
Mayor John Pritchard of Galesburg, Illinois announced Knox County, Illinois as CHMI’s sixth focus community under its Community Health Transformationportfolio. CHMI and its partners will engage key thought leaders and community stakeholders to develop a framework for improved health to decrease preventable disease and address health inequities and disparities.
U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy presented the winners of the “Fight the Ladykiller” codeathon in October 2015, organized and run by CHMI in partnership with Cal State LA and The Women’s Heart Alliance. Over three days, 40 Cal State LA students came together in six teams to learn about women’s heart health and develop educational apps geared toward increasing awareness of cardiovascular disease, the leading killer of women. The diverse collection of creative ideas and applications that were presented included mobile games, quizzes, social media integration and fitness tracking apps.
Kathy Douquet, CEO of Blue Star Families, announced a new partnership with CHMI to support spousal employment for military families by offering workforce development training and career building opportunities to military spouses. The pilot program consists of 8 initial cohorts of 14 participants, with each participant given group and individual training, as well as coaching on CRM database administration.
Participants at this year’s Summit included President Bill Clinton, Founder, Clinton Foundation; Abby Wambach, World Cup and Olympic Champion; Donna E. Shalala, President, Clinton Foundation; Rain Henderson, CEO, Clinton Health Matters Initiative; Dr. Vivek Murthy, U.S. Surgeon General; Dr. J. Craig Venter, Founder, Chairman and CEO, J. Craig Venter Institute; Dan Buettner, Author and National Geographic Fellow; Dr. Reginald J. Eadie, Chief Executive Officer, Detroit Medical Center; Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, Executive Director, Minority Health for Cleveland Clinic; Linda Evans, Mayor, La Quinta, CA;Trevor Fetter, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Tenet Healthcare; Tim Finchem, Commissioner, PGA TOUR; Dr. Nate Gross, Co-founder, Rock Health; Dr. Ellen Meara, National Bureau of Economic Research Faculty Research Fellow and Adjunct Associate Professor in Economics & Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Public Policy, Dartmouth College; Dr. Charles Modlin, Founder and Director, Minority Men’s Health Center of Cleveland Clinic’s Glickman Urological Institute; Anya Pogharian, Inventor; Dr. Kyu Rhee, Chief Health Officer and Vice President of Integrated Health Services, IBM; Jeffrey D. Selberg, MHA, Executive Director, Peterson Center on Healthcare; and Dr. Donald K. Warne, Director of the Master of Public Health Program, North Dakota State University.
