One year following the launch of the innovative INSPIRE program, Dr. Enrique Enguidanos interviews those involved in its work on lessons learned in this journey to advance community partnerships in healthcare throughout the country.
INSPIRE (Initiating National Strategies for Partnership, Inclusion, and Real Engagement) is a collaborative and coordinated team of organizations and people with lived experience committed to advancing the practice of authentic community engagement (CE) in the US healthcare system. You can read insights and recommendations that were published in the INSPIRE phase 1 report, A roadmap for effective community engagement in healthcare, at: www.camdenhealth.org/inspire-report.
You can listen to this podcast episodes on Apple, Spotify, and a number of other smaller platforms as well! For a direct link, click here.
Participants in the episode were: Rebecca Esparza and Melinda Karp
Rebecca Esparza, MBA, is a two-time cancer survivor (ovarian and thyroid). She has travelled all over the world to represent cancer survivors at various cancer advocacy activities, speaking engagements, committees and forums. Her long term survivorship of ovarian cancer (20 years) has motivated her to speak up for the underserved and marginalized; especially those without access to healthcare and/or health insurance. As a cancer patient who has experienced a cancer diagnosis with no health insurance, she has assisted countless patients and caregivers access services and programs to assist in their personal journeys. Her passion is making life better for children, whether it’s lovingly spoiling her two nephews or helping dreams come true for critically ill children through her volunteer work with the Make-A-Wish Foundation
Melinda Karp has nearly 30 years of experience as a health care industry leader developing innovative approaches to transform health care experience and outcomes through authentic consumer engagement and creating cultures of consumer partnership. In addition to leading CACP, Melinda was the Chief Experience Officer at CCA, and Senior Director of Member Experience Innovation at BCBSMA before that. Before BCBSMA, Melinda directed strategic planning and business development at Massachusetts Health Quality Partners (MHQP), where she pioneered new strategies for consumer engagement and consumer experience measurement. She has been engaged in numerous national activities and has served on several national advisory boards focused on measuring and reporting patient care experiences, improving the patient-centered delivery of care, and embedding the consumer voice into the design of health system innovations She holds an MBA in Health Care Management from Boston University and a Psychology degree from Duke University.
