Chicago-based CommonSpirit Health aims to improve health equity and advance justice by leveraging the power of "humankindness."
The Lloyd H. Dean Institute for Humankindness & Health Justice — named for CommonSpirit's former CEO, who retired in August — will focus its work on four areas, according to a Dec. 9 news release from the health system. It will fund research into how kindness and empathy in healthcare settings can improve outcomes in diverse populations; coordinate community health initiatives that align with clinical approaches to address social determinants of health; diversify the healthcare workforce and the system's partner organizations; and accelerate research to reduce race-based health disparities.
"We know that kindness and our shared humanity have the power to deliver healing to those who need it," Wright Lassiter III, CEO of CommonSpirit Health, said in the release.
Alisahah Jackson, MD, will helm the institute as president. She most recently served as the system's vice president for population health innovation and policy.