Daniel Dawes discusses The Satcher Health Leadership Institute, the Political Determinants of Health, the Health Equity Tracker Project and how data and technology can help us make progress on COVID-19 inequities.

The Satcher Health Leadership Institute (SHLI) at Morehouse School of Medicine aims to be the leading transformational force for health equity in policy, leadership development, and research. Rooted in the legacy of their founder, the 16th U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. David Satcher, the institute’s mission is to create systemic change at the intersection of policy and equity by focusing on three priority areas: the political determinants of health, health system transformation, and mental and behavioral health.

The COVID-19 outbreak is having a disproportionate impact on communities of color, raising urgent questions about why that’s happening and about what can be done to reduce risk and harm for people of color. With the help of a $1.5 million Google.org grant and a team of Google.org Fellows, SHLI is building a database with a detailed breakdown of the virus’s impact by race, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status and other critical factors. The data, in turn, will help policymakers better understand how to ensure those communities receive the targeted help that they need to close those racial gaps and ensure the communities receive the resources and support that they need to battle the virus.

Daniel E. Dawes, J.D. is a widely respected scholar, researcher, educator, and leader in the health equity, health reform, and mental health movements. He is currently the Director of the Satcher Health Leadership Institute and a professor of health law, policy and management. Additionally, he is the co-founder of the Health Equity Leadership and Exchange Network (HELEN), which is a nationwide network of governmental and non-governmental leaders, researchers, and scholars focused on bolstering leadership and the exchange of research, information, and solutions to advance evidence-based health equity-focused policies and programs. Dawes’s research focuses on the drivers of health inequities among under-resourced, vulnerable, and marginalized communities and is the pioneer of a new approach to examining inequities and the political determinants of health. He brings a forward-thinking, inclusive, and multidisciplinary approach to health policy, authoring two groundbreaking books, 150 Years of ObamaCare and The Political Determinants of Health.

Get the book "Political Determinants of Health," here: https://goo.gle/3n8puve
To learn more about Jessica's story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmMutvgQIcU
To learn more about the data and technology: https://goo.gle/3sF70Um

Moderated by Dr. Karen DeSalvo.