Dismantling institutional racism to close health gaps: U.S. expert
An American expert in health care quality and patient safety will present a public lecture focused on confronting and breaking down institutional racism to create health equity for all.
Dr. Ronald Wyatt is chief quality officer at Cook County Health, one of the largest public health systems in the United States, located in Illinois. The lecture, entitled Dismantling Institutional Racism to Achieve Health Equity: A New Framework, takes place on Monday, May 27 from 12-1 p.m. in the Frederic Gaspard Theatre, Basic Medical Sciences Building, 745 Bannatyne Ave.
Wyatt presents across the United States and internationally on leadership, safety culture, professionalism, patient experience and health equity. He was part of the team at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) that developed a framework and a workshop on dismantling institutional racism to achieve health equity.
Dr. Marcia Anderson, executive director, Indigenous Academic Affairs, Ongomiizwin – Indigenous Institute of Health and Healing, said that it is important that Wyatt is speaking in Manitoba at this point in time.
“We need to consider this as core work that is implemented across all aspects of health professional education and health service delivery if we want to achieve our shared goals of closing the gaps in health currently experienced by Indigenous peoples such that the right to the highest attainable standard of health is respected, protected and fulfilled,” she said.
Before joining Cook County Health, Wyatt was the chief quality officer at the Hamad Medical Corporation and served as the medical director of the Hamad Healthcare Quality Institute in Doha, Qatar. In 2012, he served as the first patient safety officer and medical director for the Joint Commission, which accredits and certifies more than 20,000 health care organizations and programs in the United States.
Wyatt attended the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine. He completed the internal medicine residency program at the St. Louis University, where he served as the first African-American chief medical resident in his final year.
The presentation is sponsored by the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences’ Indigenous Institute of Health and Healing- Ongomiizwin, Winnipeg Regional Health Authority and George & Fay Yee Centre for Healthcare Innovation.
The lecture will be livestreamed on Facebook: https://facebook.com/IndigenousStudentCentreUofM/