Karen Tseng, a nonresident fellow in health policy at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy, and the senior vice president for population health transformation at Harris Health System, spoke recently at a virtual event hosted by the University of Houston Law Center's Health Law & Policy Institute.
April 9, 2021- Karen Tseng, Senior Vice President & Chief Integration Officer for the Harris Health System, told attendees that care environments must go beyond medical treatment and utilize cross-disciplinary approaches to health at a recent University of Houston Law Center Health Law & Policy Institute lecture. Professor Jessica Mantel served as the moderator.
Karen, also a nonresident fellow in health policy at Rice University’s Baker Institute, has centered patients’ needs in her nearly 15 years of experience in health reform and systems transformation. The Skadden Foundation, the Health Policy Commission and Harvard University have recognized her commitment to public service.
In her talk, she presented three interrelated Harris Health initiatives - a food prescription program, a nutrition and chronic disease management hub, and a community population health collaborative - to illustrate how Harris Health System is leveraging the social determinants of health to improve patient outcomes. She also explored points of intersection with the regulatory environment and the financing options they are exploring to improve program sustainability.
“I really think of this work as embodying the best of the lawyering model,” she said, emphasizing that lawyers are service professionals who, “meet their clients where they are at. To be practical and results-oriented requires taking an interdisciplinary, holistic approach.”
The Health Law & Policy Institute hosts influential and innovative health law practitioners every year. This series allows faculty, students, and attorneys to earn continuing legal education credit while learning about the many forms a career in health law and policy can take.
