Thanks for listening to the Advancing Health podcast — we hope you have found it engaging and informative! As we wrap up 2024, we’re sharing highlights from two of our most popular episodes of the year. Advancing Health returns with new episodes in 2025. Until then, we hope you and your family have a safe and wonderful holidays and a happy New Year!

Workforce issues, financial sustainability and new technologies are just a few of the unknowns facing health care organizations across the United States. But with uncertainty, comes opportunity. In this Leadership Dialogue conversation, Joanne M. Conroy, M.D., CEO and president of Dartmouth Health and 2024 AHA board chair, and Tina Freese Decker, president and CEO of Corewell Health and AHA board chair-elect, share insights on health care's current and future challenges, the impact the AHA can have on the field, and Tina's excitement as incoming AHA board chair.

This conversation has been edited for time. To view the full video conversation please visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJmBETVQOc0

Titus Regional Medical Center is the main health care destination for five rural counties in northeast Texas. With that responsibility comes an unshakeable commitment to health equity for all the patients it serves. In this conversation, Terry Scoggin, CEO of Titus Regional Medical Center, discusses how the organization has designed a system of care to ensure that every patient has equitable access, and how the AHA's Health Equity Roadmap has provided valuable resources to support Titus’s mission of transforming the health of its communities.

More than 60% of America's practicing psychiatrists are 55 years of age or older, and likely to retire within the next decade. These specialists provide a significant portion of behavioral health services. So what does the future hold for both the behavioral health workforce and their patients? In this conversation, Dylan Panuska, PsyD, clinical psychologist and manager of behavioral health integration with Endeavor Health, showcases examples of how workforce productivity, retention and patient satisfaction are positively impacted by a key factor: integration.

Learn more about behavioral health integration at https://www.aha.org/center/emerging-issues/market-insights/behavioral-health-integration/behavioral-health-integration-treating-whole-person

Creating diverse and equitable research is paramount for any health care organization, but making sure those research teams are equitable themselves is just as critical. That's why national nonprofit AcademyHealth has released a new “Roadmap for Researchers” to help ensure and advance this important work. In this conversation, Margo Edmunds, Ph.D., director of the AcademyHealth Center on Diversity, Inclusion and Minority Engagement, discusses the benefits this vital resource can provide to health care research, and the difference it's already making in health systems, nonprofits, and beyond.

The health care industry does everything possible to mitigate errors, yet mistakes can happen. That's why CommonSpirit Health has worked to adopt an organizational culture of transparency that allows its employees to feel comfortable reporting errors when they occur. In this “Safety Speaks” conversation, CommonSpirit Health's Beth Miller, system director, patient safety-performance improvement, and Austin Peterson, system director, patient harm prevention, discuss how safety transparency benefits both patients and providers, and how a CommonSpirit Health toolkit can help organizations lead the way in error reporting and patient safety.

30 years from now, it's projected that nearly one quarter of America's population will be age 65 or older. To mitigate potential care gaps, the Age-Friendly Health Systems Initiative was created to improve health care for older adults. In this conversation, Dave Eaker, geriatric program coordinator at Atrium Health, and Shannon Morton, assistant vice president of patient care services at Atrium Health Cabarrus, discuss the reasons the organization made the jump to join the Initiative, the infrastructure being developed across the system, and the difference it's made for the aging population.

To learn more about the Age-Friendly Health Systems initiative, please visit https://www.aha.org/center/age-friendly-health-systems

Artificial intelligence (AI) in health care isn't an innovation for the distant future; it's already here. But how will it develop across all sectors of the health care field? In this Leadership Dialogue conversation, Amy Perry, president and CEO of Banner Health, discusses how AI and other technologies can relieve caregivers of tedious and time-consuming aspects of their jobs, and help organize critical data for caregivers, patients and research.

This podcast has been edited for time. To view the full conversation please visit, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlnpFa4yYPE