lystn

Put down the stethoscope and look patients in the eye, urges Dr. Toyin Ajayi. To really improve health outcomes, you've got to seek a fuller understanding than just organ systems and diseases. Dr. Ajayi grew up in Kenya, where she learned early the large role that income plays in health and social outcomes. The social justice and service ideals rooted in her childhood accompanied her through and post-medical school, when, working as a physician and hospitalist, she felt a calling to try to fix what she experienced as a broken system. Three years ago, she co-founded Cityblock Health, a New-York-based health and social services company that serves low-income Medicaid populations. In this fascinating interview, Dr. Ajayi shares Cityblock's innovative trust-based, value-based care model, which features full integration of behavioral health, an actively anti-racist company culture, technology tools that seek out the full 360-degree view of a patient and their risk factors, and omnichannel access that meets people where they are, be that in their homes, a cafe, or elsewhere in their community.