Tennessee Voices, Episode 321: Mark Yancy, chief executive officer, NashvilleHealth
The story of Nashville is a tale of two cities when it comes to health care.
Music City has among the best health care infrastructure systems in the country, if not the world, but it also has very poor health outcomes when one considers the general population.
Issues such as hypertension, low physical activity, smoking and high pedestrian fatalities are serious problems. For others, poverty, food deserts and transportation limit access to primary care.
In 2015, Dr. Bill Frist, the former Senate Majority Leader, announced the creation of NashvilleHealth, an organization dedicated to convening dialogue, pooling resources and providing knowledge for the purpose of creating better health outcomes for the whole city.
On this episode of the Tennessee Voices video podcast, NashvilleHealth President and CEO Mark Yancy talked about the work his organization is doing and how it is amplifying the conversations on the connection between health outcomes and critical topics of the day including the scarcity of affordable housing, racism and the rising mental health crisis.
We also spoke about equity in vaccines, be it for the flu or COVID. NashvilleHealth played a critical role in making recommendations for Metro Nashville Government based upon its COVID response to assess what went well and how to avoid future mistakes. Yancy has spoken at the White House about his work.
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About Tennessee Voices
The Tennessee Voices videocast is a 20-minute program, which started in March 2020 and invites leaders, thinkers and innovators who have written guest columns for a USA TODAY Network Tennessee publication to share their insights and wisdom with me and our viewers.
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David Plazas is the director of opinion and engagement for the USA TODAY Network Tennessee and an editorial board member of The Tennessean. Tweet to him at @davidplazas.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee Voices: Mark Yancy, chief executive officer, NashvilleHealth
