The Disparities Leadership Program (DLP) is a one year executive leadership program designed to equip a cadre of leaders in healthcare with in-depth knowledge in the field of disparities, cutting-edge quality improvement strategies for identifying and addressing disparities, and leadership skills to facilitate the organizational transformation necessary to advance health care equity. With support from The Aetna Foundation, The Leadership Learning Community (LLC) conducted an external evaluation of the DLP and the program's impact on participating organizations’ efforts to address health inequities. In this webinar, Dr. Joseph Betancourt, Director of the Disparities Solutions Center, Dr. Roderick King, Senior Faculty at the Disparities Solutions Center, and Dr. Claire Reinelt, founding member and former Research and Evaluation Director of LLC, will provide an overview of the DLP, present the findings of the evaluation and discuss lessons learned for the development and implementation of successful executive leadership programs focused on organizational transformation. This evaluation was supported by The Aetna Foundation, a national foundation based in Hartford, Connecticut, that supports projects to promote wellness, health and access to high quality care for everyone. The views presented here are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Aetna Foundation, its directors, officers, or staff. The Aetna Foundation was not involved in selecting the organizations involved or in the work conducted as part of the Disparities Leadership Program evaluation.

1. The Disparities Leadership Program
Empowering Leaders. Getting to Solutions

2. Diabetes-Related Death Rate, 2012
Deaths per 100,000 population
22.8
50.1
33.6
50.3
18.4
0
10
20
30
40
50
WHITE BLACK HISP/LTN AI/AN ASIAN/PI

3. Disparities in Health Care 2002
Racial/Ethnic disparities found
across a wide range of health
care settings, disease areas,
and clinical services, even
when various confounders
(SES, insurance) controlled for.
Many sources contribute to
disparities—no one suspect, no
one solution

4. IOM’s Unequal Treatment
www.nap.edu
Recommendations
 Increase awareness of existence of disparities
 Address systems of care
– Support race/ethnicity data collection, quality improvement, evidence-
based guidelines, multidisciplinary teams, community outreach
– Improve workforce diversity
– Facilitate interpretation services
 Provider education
– Health Disparities, Cultural Competence, Clinical Decisionmaking
 Patient education (navigation, activation)
 Research
– Promising strategies, Barriers to eliminating disparities

5. Our Vision:
Disparities Leadership Program Goals
 Develop cadre of leaders in health care equipped with
– Knowledge of disparities, root causes, research-to-date
– Cutting-edge QI strat’s for identifying/addressing disparities
– Leadership skills to implement and transform organizations
 Assist individuals and organizations to:
– Create a strategic plan to address disparities, or
– Advance or improve an ongoing project, and
– Be prepared to meet new standards and regulations from
the JC, NCQA, and health care reform

6. Disparities Leadership Program Objectives
At the conclusion, participants will be able to:
 Identify ways to secure buy-in from leadership
 List techniques for race/ethnicity data collection and
performance measurement and monitoring
 Describe interventions to reduce disparities
 Become familiar with strategies to message the issue
of disparities internally and externally
 Develop concrete steps to address disparities within
their organizations

7. Year-Long Timeline
 Dec: Letter of Intent
 Feb: Application Deadline (Team, Project, CEO Sign-Off)
 May: Opening Meeting
 June: Collaborative Group Conference Call #1
 August: Individual Team Call #1
 October: Web Seminar #1, Collaborative Group Conference
Call #2
 December: IHI Session
 January: Individual Team Call #2
 February: Collaborative Meeting
 March: Web Seminar #2
 April: Final Collaborative Call, Individual Call and Final
Reports Due

8. Opening and Collaborative Meetings
Opening Meeting
 Special Sessions
– Intro to Disparities
– Collecting Race/Ethnicity Data
– Communications
– Using your Data
– Leading Change
 Panels
– Disps on L’ship Agenda; Measures and Reporting; Interventions; Sys Resp;
Alumni Panel
 Collaborative Groups
– Each team assigned to collaborative group and present/provide feedback to
each other
Collaborative Meeting
 Team Presentations
 Leading Change and Sustainability

9. Our Experience:
Disparities Leadership Program Alumni
• Only program of its kind in the nation
• With our current class, the Disparities Leadership
Program will have trained:
• 211 participants
• 98 organizations
• 47 hospitals
• 21 health plans
• 20 community health centers
• 1 hospital trade organization
• 1 federal government agency
• 1 city government agency
• 7 professional organizations

10. DLP participants hail from 29 states, the
Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and Switzerland