At ZS, we are committed to doing the right thing—including using our passions and expertise to address profound disparities that negatively influence health outcomes across the United States.
To understand those disparities, ZS partnered with the Healthcare Leadership Council (HLC) and its membership community to produce the report, “Advancing Health Equity: Practical Solutions to Address Variations in Care.” With the help of ZSers like Judith Kulich, Nan Gu, Howard Deutsch and Tobi Laczkowski this report sheds light on discrepancies in healthcare quality and provides effective measures to reduce them. As the patient health and equity lead at ZS, Judith uses these insights when partnering with clients and fellow ZSers to improve the future of health.
Where passion changes lives
Philanthropic endeavors sit close to Judith’s heart. From a young age, she was shaped by her father’s passion for representing underserved communities in his work as both a chaplain and a lawyer. In her 22 years at ZS, Judith has tapped into her innate philanthropic spirit. Judith is a founding member of Women@ZS, a group that focuses on the experience women have in the organization. Judith also actively participates as a volunteer and board member in several non-profits, in addition to supporting ZS’s efforts with these organizations in ZS Cares.
This year, she played a pivotal role in developing ZS’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategy, partnering with clients and other leaders across ZS—including those in diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI); health equity; climate change and data security and privacy—to define how we can amplify and deliver healthy, fair and sustainable outcomes for all.
“At the intersection of healthcare, ESG and DEI, health equity is the perfect opportunity for impact,” Judith says. “The expertise and capabilities that ZS has are incredible and we have the ability to partner with our clients to drive even greater, more significant impact.”
As a member of the HLC, ZS and other organizations advocated for “Advancing Health Equity: Practical Solutions to Address Variations in Care.” The members were keen to dig into what steps should be taken to enable positive change in health equity. HLC specifically asked ZS to consult on this effort, so Judith and her team dug deep, compiling extensive research for the report.
“We interviewed more than 30 of HLC’s member organizations including major hospital systems, national health plans and global life sciences companies, held workshops and incorporated our own analysis and outside research to formulate a report that focuses on the role of each individual sector in healthcare in amending disparities in care,” Judith says. The report dives into the benefits of collaborating across sectors and industries, provides steps that should be taken by each individual organization and makes recommendations for government and policy changes.
“I was really inspired to find that every organization we spoke with on the topic had something to say and had initiatives underway,” Judith says. “Some of the work was quite advanced; others were earlier on in their journey. The most impactful initiatives were the ones that were really focused and customized around the specific disparity being addressed. There is so much that can be done and needs to be done but picking an area of focus allows organizations to narrow this immense problem to something actionable and get creative in designing interventions for a specific individual or population.”
This report is an early step in ZS’s aspiration of transforming global healthcare and improving health outcomes for all. For next steps, ZS is partnering with our clients in areas like diversity in clinical trials, vaccine hesitancy, multicultural marketing and global screening programs to take this work even further. To learn more about the key findings of this report, read it here.
To find your passion and join a team transforming global healthcare, explore our careers page.
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