HEALTH EQUITY
ited by the choices available to them . Poor allocation of resources , historic injustices and discrimination have created underserved communities that , still today , lack healthy food options , access to care , safe housing , good paying jobs , safe environments , and the list could go on . Limited resources and barriers to accessing those resources lead to poorer health outcomes .
I have come to understand health inequities through my personal life experiences as well as my work . For those of you I haven ’ t had the pleasure of meeting yet , I ’ m Dr . Inder Singal and I serve as the Executive Director for the Louisville Metro Department of Public Health and Wellness . I ’ ve also been practicing as a retina specialist in Louisville since 2003 .
My passion for serving people and trying to find sustainable solutions to solve inequities developed from my childhood experiences . I grew up in a small town in Northern India in a very humble home . Life was not easy in general for most people , but it was especially a challenge for lower middle-class families like ours . Resources were limited and allocated differentially to a select privileged group of people .
Realizing the limited opportunities back home , I moved to the U . S . with the help of family members and friends . I started out in California working odd jobs . I was a gas station attendant at 7-Eleven , a sandwich maker at Subway and machine operator at Serta Mattress . I took pride in each job I held and treated every job as a stepping stone towards future goals . Finally , I made my way to the University of California - Davis , where I attended morning classes and worked the afternoon shift to pay for my undergraduate degree and support my family back in India .
From there , I traveled to Detroit , Michigan to earn my Doctor of Medicine degree from Wayne State University School of Medicine . Early in medical school , I knew I wanted to pursue ophthalmology . Growing up , I had seen lots of surgical eye clinic camps in my community where surgeons came from abroad and helped many people regain their vision .
Those camps left such a profound impact on me that I not only decided to become an ophthalmologist , but it influenced the mission behind the organization my wife and I founded , Adarsh Charitable Foundation . Our vision is to help create a world where everyone , regardless of their socioeconomic status or geographic location , has access to high-quality eye care and to help eliminate preventable causes of vision loss .
Currently our organization serves people in Belize and Guatemala . In addition to working in the clinics and supporting the clinics financially , we are working on a sustainable solution to solve access to care in Belize .
I believe charity should be boring . It shouldn ’ t be about a dopamine hit ; it should be an oxytocin release . It ’ s exciting when you buy an airplane ticket , go to a third world country and see lines of people waiting for you . You feel great and dopamine flows through your veins . But if you really think it through , it is not the best model to serve others . The money spent on these trips could have instead paid for scholarships for students to go through school .
Let me be clear , I am not against these trips . They serve a dire need . However , we must be aware that we are leaving millions of people behind without treatment unless we find ways to train and retain locals to serve their communities .
Over the past five years , Adarsh Charitable Foundation has sponsored seven students from Belize . The foundation covers all their expenses to study in Costa Rica or Guatemala and in return , they come back to serve their communities . That helps solve the biggest barrier to health care , access .
I often discuss the work our organization is doing abroad because it shows how to break barriers , increase access to care and make systemic changes to solve inequities : we are planting mangoes , not tomatoes .
Back here at home , improving health equity remains my main focus , and I am honored to be leading the transformative work being done at the Louisville Metro Department of Public Health and Wellness ( LMPHW ).
In 2006 , LMPHW established the Center for Health Equity , the first of its kind within a city government . The intention behind building this division was to create a Louisville Metro where everyone can reach optimal health .
The Center for Health Equity has provided health equity reports since 2011 . They are designed to present data and evidence of barriers our communities face in living a healthy , long life . Barriers , I note , that can be removed by governments , businesses , policymakers and others in positions of authority and power .
The latest Health Equity Report , released this year , is called “ An Invitation to Imagine : Transforming Power for Health Equity .” The main theme is “ the garden .” The report is an invitation for everyone to act as a benevolent gardener to nurture and transform the garden where every plant has its fullest potential to thrive and flower , contributing to the well-being of the entire garden .
This year , we launched a new companion interactive tool to the Health Equity Report , our first ever Health Equity Data Dashboard that can be found at www . louhealthdata . com . It provides a current data snapshot of the city ’ s overall health and includes demographics and data for numerous health outcomes . It also provides analysis
( continued on page 18 ) October 2024 17