A few days ago, to improve healthcare solutions, the Verizon Foundation announced its new program strategy. Through collaborative partnerships with national healthcare not-for-profits and health information technology solutions from Verizon Enterprise Solutions, this strategy is aimed at reducing healthcare disparities, improving quality and access to care, and empowering patients in need with better chronic disease management programs.
To fund and equip four not-for-profit healthcare organizations with new health information technologies, the Verizon Foundation will invest nearly $13 million in grants and in-kind technology. The organizations focus on children, women and senior citizens.
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"For the first time at Verizon we’re integrating our technology solutions and philanthropy to accelerate change in health care and improve patient outcomes. We’re deploying our technology with behavior modification programs to empower people to take control of their health,” said Rose Stuckey Kirk, president of the Verizon Foundation.
She added that it seeks to share its success in technology in underserved communities through its philanthropy and corporate giving. To enhance patient-care models and empower disease education and management through technology, it is working hard with its partner organizations.
Each year, Americans spend more than $2.6 trillion on healthcare and 45 percent of the entire population lives with at least one chronic disease such as heart disease, diabetes and lung diseases. In the U.S., seven out of 10 deaths are attributed to chronic diseases, many of which are preventable.
Of every healthcare dollar, seventy-five cents is spent on chronic disease and the impact of chronic disease on underserved populations accounts for almost 40 cents of the money spent. With four innovators in the healthcare sector, the Verizon Foundation is launching programs to help address these issues.
The innovators are the Children's Health Fund, the Society for Women's Health Research, the National Association of Community Health Centers, and the University of California, San Diego. To include additional partnerships, the program will expand in 2013.
Edited by
Brooke Neuman
