The News & Observer recognized Crystal Rene Cené, MD, MPH, and the role she will play in leading an effort to change policies and practices in the UNC Health system to make it more accessible to the communities it serves.
“In this new position, Dr. Cené will collaborate with leaders to first understand the barriers to care and then lead a comprehensive research and data-driven approach with the goal of improving the availability of quality care for traditionally underserved groups,” said Wesley Burks, MD, UNC Heath’s CEO and Dean of the UNC School of Medicine.
The News & Observer reports Cené, who already “directs a research program on health disparities at the medical school, said she doesn’t know yet what UNC’s strategy for health equity will look like” but recognizes that at “least one step seems obvious to her: determining why the digital portal that UNC doctors use to communicate with patients is not available in Spanish and then making it so.”
“That should be low-hanging fruit,” she says. “We can’t say we’re serving the people of North Carolina until we figure out a way to provide this level of access.”
Cené will collaborate with leaders to understand barriers to care, and then lead a comprehensive research and data-driven approach with the goal of improving the availability of quality care for underserved groups.
Read the article here.