Cultural concordance: a key component of personalization

When I think about representation and the opportunity afforded to me as Chief Medical Officer of ActiveHealth Management, I always think about how grateful I am for the privileges that enabled me to be where I am today. First, though born in Massachusetts to Cuban parents, I was raised in Puerto Rico as part of a fairly homogenous society where everyone was Hispanic. As such, I didn’t feel the hardships that can come with living in a society that sees you as “other.” Second, my parents were progressive and always supportive of my aspirations. I wasn’t held back by the need to adhere to a traditional female construct and received their emotional and financial support to pursue my dreams of becoming a doctor.

I am committed to working with ActiveHealth to advocate for people who may not historically have had much of a voice

Having been given this opportunity to flourish, I now feel a responsibility to help mentor and eliminate barriers for people who didn’t have the same privilege. Knowing that only 2.4% of the physician workforce in the U.S. are Latin women*, one of my goals is to increase the number of people working to improve health outcomes for their larger community.  In my professional capacity, I’m involved in mentorship and as an advisor and speaker for leadership development courses for minority women.  As a visible minority physician leader, I can provide representation and serve as an enabler for women who may not have shared many of the privileges I have had in life.

I am committed to working with ActiveHealth to advocate for people who may not historically have had much of a voice. I am pushing to continue to evaluate each clinical program to see how it’s performing across demographics. Measuring our performance will allow us to identify opportunities to improve how we impact health outcomes.  In addition, as part of the strategy to address health disparities, I am driving for wider use of self-reported social determinants of health and demographic data to help make programs more culturally sensitive and relevant. By being mindful of cultural context, we can engage people and communicate in a way that honors their cultural traditions and identity while influencing behaviors that lead to healthier outcomes.

In collaboration with the rest of the ActiveHealth senior leadership team, we can augment the level of personalization of our programs to include cultural concordance. This will help us achieve the goal to help more than 27 million ActiveHealth members become healthier in body, mind and spirit – one person at a time. 

* https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34524137/

Services are provided by ActiveHealth Management, Inc. Our programs, care team and care managers do not provide diagnostic or direct treatment services. We assist you in getting the care you need, and our program is not a substitute for the medical treatment and/or instructions provided by your health care providers.