Health Equity

Committee Chairs: Mark Redding, MD and Jonna McRury, MD, FAAP

Description of committee, including, mission, goals, and activities:

The Health Equity Committee has two primary areas of focus:

1. CATCH – Community Access to Child Health is a grant program offered by the American Academy of Pediatrics to support Pediatricians in developing innovative approaches to addressing access to care and health disparity. The Equity Committee serves to support the work of:

Marketing and creating greater access of Pediatricians to the CATCH Program;
Assisting pediatricians with grant proposals;
Reviewing and scoring grant proposals;
Highlighting previous CATCH initiatives as part of news letters and Ohio Chapter events;
Participating in the work of the National AAP to develop and improve CATCH

2. To work as part of the Ohio Chapter to develop policy, funding and related initiatives to address health equity in Ohio and nationally. As part of this work the Equity Committee has begun several projects including:

The development of a one-page policy paper outlining specific areas of critical focus to achieve health equity in Ohio.
The Equity Committee has written a first draft of a paper outlining the critical need for care coordination reform to ensure at risk individuals are connected to evidence based care.
The Equity Committee has served in state health policy development within Medicaid and Healthy Ohio.
Community programs focused on achieving health equity are being focused on as model programs and supported to share in best practices.

Meeting dates: The committee meets quarterly. Two to four times a year in person and two to four times a year by teleconference. Meetings are held as needed.

Committee members: Mark Redding, MD, Jona McRury, MD, Toni Eaton, MD, Terry Barber, MD, Bill Cotton, MD, Emily Decker, MD, Ellen Buerk, MD, Gerald Tiberio, MD, Judy Romano, MD, Libby Ruppert, MD.

Web sites of interest:

CATCH www.aap.org/catch

Additional information: The Health Equity Committee would like to support and be part of developments to remove health disparities and improve the well being of children and their families. The committee is interested in your ideas to achieve these outcomes and encourage your involvement. To become active in the work of the Equity Committee please contact Mark Redding reddingz@att.net or Jonna Mcrury Jmcrury@aol.com

Minutes