Advancing Maternal Health and Child 

New Workgroup- Priorities and Action Plan

February 24, 2023 

12:00 PM CT- 1:00 PM CT 

Webinar

A confirmation message and Zoom link will be sent immediately upon registering for the program. If you do not receive the confirmation with the Zoom link, please contact the IOMC office promptly by email at iomcstaff@iomc.org. 

Dr. Anita Stewart, MD, MPH, JD,  and Dr. Lisa Green, DO, Co-Chairs of the Maternal Health & Child Workgroup,  will be talking about IOMC's Maternal Health and Child Action Plan and workgroup activities. They will be joined by Ms. Dawn Gay, MBA-HCM.

When the Institute of Medicine of Chicago(IOMC) presented its State of Health of Chicago program "Advancing Maternal Health Justice in Illinois" in October 2021, IOMC knew it would designate resources to change maternal health inequities.  Numerous studies have documented the critical need for access to prenatal care, and reduced use of and reduced access to pre-and post-natal care. Video. There is a long list of women's health disparities, from stillbirth to infant and maternal mortality. We cannot effectively address all the problems at once; however, we can prioritize them and implement the necessary changes.

IOMC intends to address and answer how to improve access to care in selective communities, improve access to Level II care, and more. 

According to the National Center for Health Statistics, in 2020, the maternal mortality rate for Black women was 55.3 deaths per 100,000 live births. The 2020 rate for white women was 19.1 deaths per 1000 live births. Many issues factor into these statistics.

Dr. Anita Stewart, MD, MPH, JD, and Dr. Lisa Green, DO, Co-Chairs, IOMC Maternal Health and Child Workgroup, will talk about the key areas that IOMC will address over the next two years. They will share the current actions of the workgroup and the anticipated plans to advance health equity, specifically in the South Side and West Side of Chicago. The intention is to identify ways to advance maternal health through implementation and clinical care practices.

Learning Objectives

By attending this session, you will

• Obtain the key disparities that IOMC will address.
• Be able to identify the intended actions and timeline.
• See how they relate and align with advancing maternal justice through clinical care practices.

Speakers

Dr. Anita Stewart, MD, MPH, JD, Medical Director Government Programs, BlueCross BlueShield of Illinois,  Billings Fellow, IOMC; and Board Member of the Institute of Medicine of Chicago

Dr. Lisa Green, DO, MPH, Chief Executive Officer at Family Christian Health Center; IOMC Fellow and Board Member of the Institute of Medicine of Chicago 

Dawn V. Gay, MBA-HCM, Executive Director , Chief Relationship Officer, CareAdvisors, and Fellow, IOMC

Suggested Reading & Viewing

Fighting Black Maternal Mortality, Chicago Tribune, Jan.20, 2023. New York Times. 

Tackling Maternal Health Equity to Achieve Health Equity in Illinois- IOMC,  Nov. 2021. Video. Melissa Simon, MD, MPH, Professor, Obstetrics, and Gynecology; Feinberg School of Medicine, Fellow of the Institute of Medicine of Chicago

#4 IOMC-SOHOC-Grand Convening- Pre-Election-Maternal Morbidity & COVID-19, -IOMC, Oct. 2020. Video. Cheryl Rucker-Whitaker, MD, MPH, FACP, President and Chair of IOMC and Chair of NextLevel Health Speakers: Robin Jones, MD, Associate Professor of ObGYN, Rush University Medical Center Dr. Lisa Green, CEO, Family Christian Health Center. 

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