UTHSC News: Soulsville Heart Health Summit Emphasizes Community Collaboration to Increase Access to Care

Community-led collaboration was a key theme at the two-day Soulsville Heart Health Summit August 9 and 10 at Stax Museum of American Soul Music, the first annual meeting of the Tennessee Heart Health Network in partnership with the Soulsville Foundation. The network is the signature project of the Tennessee Population Health Consortium at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center.

"We have the opportunity to literally and figuratively give life by focusing on preventive care and better access to health care," Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris told attendees. "Only by all of us working together-not everything in silos-can we make a difference."

The summit was held in the Soulsville neighborhood to call attention to the needs of underserved areas. Approximately 140 people registered to attend in person or via Zoom. Speakers included Mayor Harris; Memphis Mayor Paul Young; Regional One Health Chief Integration Officer Susan Cooper, MSN, RN, FAAN; UT Health Science Center Chancellor Peter Buckley, MD; and Knowledge Quest founder Marlon Foster. All are passionate about bringing health care to medically underserved populations and addressing the social determinants of health (SDOH) that make that more challenging.

Read more at our UTHSC news site.