“I created Grapevine Health for people who feel unseen and unheard in healthcare. We say ‘people are distrustful of healthcare,’ but we fail to talk about how we’ve created such an untrustworthy health system.” – Lisa Fitzpatrick, Health Innovators Fellows, Founder & CEO, Grapevine Health
Having held many positions across the health care ecosystem, Lisa Fitzpatrick, Aspen Health Innovators Fellow, saw a pervasive problem impacting health outcomes and health care costs: health literacy. An issue that was especially impacting low-income communities and communities of color.
In order to gain a deeper understanding of the problem, Lisa moved to Anacostia, a community in South East, Washington DC that is one of the poorest neighborhoods in the city. Lisa spent more than a year getting to know her neighbors and the community so she could better understand how they experienced the health care system. She learned that, to get low-income communities like hers engaged in health care, she needed to focus on building trust.
This led her to create Grapevine Health, a digital health media company that provides relatable health information in understandable terms to underserved communities. Lisa and her team of doctors go out on the street and meet with community members face-to-face to build relationships and break down their health questions and concerns. These “on-the-street” sessions are recorded and distributed on Grapevine’s website and social media channels to spread the information wider.
In a health system that’s overly complex, the right information, being shared at the right time, delivered in language they can understand can be the difference in that person getting the help they need.
Watch the video above to learn more about Grapevine Health’s impact and find out how you might get involved.
