I have the privilege of speaking to the Chief Academic Officer for Sarasota Memorial Health Care Systems. This is Dr. Wilhelmine Wiese-Rometsch.
“Thank you for giving us the opportunity; it’s a pleasure to be here.” says Chief Academic Officer Dr. Dr. Wilhelmine Wiese-Rometsch
Being in the field that you are in and seeing what you see on a daily basis, the growth of making healthcare more available for everybody.
“When we look at healthcare outcomes, is 80 to 90% of these socially determinant health related needs that we see in patients that are not always addressed.” – says Dr. Wiese-Rometsch
Access to healthcare is so prominent, and so necessary. Just some of the social and economic things we as minorities may not know when it comes to protecting ourselves.
“For example, the black population, Hispanic population, are at a significant higher risk to die from heart disease, to die from strokes, twice as likely to die from strokes. They have a higher rate of myocardial infarction.” – says Dr. Wiese-Rometsch
Dr. Wilhelmine, talk to me just about the, not only the environmental, but the hereditary side or impact if you will. How do those two factors play into it?
“While there are hereditary conditions, equally important is how do we address the environment? If we have someone with hypertension, and we don’t properly address the environment, their accessibility to medications, we are not going to make a dent into their blood pressure control.” – says Dr. Wiese-Rometsch
What preventive measures should we take?
“Making sure that you do have access to get checked out. If you have a family history of heart disease, if you have problems previously, you should really be developing a relationship with a provider to address those things.” -says Dr. Wiese-Rometsch
SMH has a platform called “Unite Us”. It is being used to allow medical providers to refer patients with unmet health-related social needs to the appropriate community resource.
