Dr. Mike Imburgia
Have a Heart Clinic
Job Title: Founder, Cardiologist
Member of KHC for: 1 year
Provide a brief description of your job: Providing free care to those that do not have access
Share your personal interest in Health and Healthcare System Improvement.
Our interests are providing cardiovascular care to those who do not have access. To ensure that there is health care equity to those and underserved populations.
What are you currently working on that you are most excited about? How do you think it will drive improvements to health and healthcare in the community?
The things I’m most excited about are our preventive cardiology/HealthEquity center. We enroll patients to ensure that everyone is treated equally. And I’m even more excited about our community screenings where we go into the communities where cardiovascular disease risk is the highest; screen for CV disease and educate with the hope of achieving not just Healthcare equity but Health Equity in the community
What are you most excited about working on in the future around health and healthcare improvement?
Very excited about working with the new Kentuckiana HealthEquity committee two hopefully change policy to ensure again that all are treated equally when it comes to Healthcare that is healthcare equity based on gender, race, income status, and insurance status
What do you see as the biggest threat to our community’s health? How do you feel it needs to be addressed?
I feel the biggest threat is how we treat minority groups. It seems that healthy life style and longevity are unfortunately directly related to income and race. I think the best way to address that is first with data to show the disparities, then being present in the communities to promote healthy lifestyle, and again to give equal access to quality healthcare.
Lowering cost is one of the three main priorities of the Triple Aim. What are the best strategies for addressing cost in our community?
This is a great question. Of course keeping people healthier would cost less.
Improving care is one of the three main priorities of the Triple Aim. What are the best strategies for improving healthcare quality including patient safety and experience in our community?
As above the first is to have that data and share the data on quality and quality not just based on overall population broken down based on income, race, gender and insurance status. And then put in place strategies to ensure that high quality care based on guidelines is achieved in all populations
Improving health is one of the three main priorities of the Triple Aim. What are the best strategies for improving health in our community?
I think this is easy. Unfortunately it cost money to live a healthier lifestyle. That is healthy food, places to exercise. So it’s not just about education it’s about giving many of these populations access to the same type of foods and exercise. And there are plenty of wonderful non for profit entities that exist that are out there trying to help with this. We just need to coordinate that and above all be in the communities providing healthy choice access and education.
Why do you and your organization belong to the KHC? What do you find most valuable as a member?
They and our organization share a common goal to improve quality and outcomes in healthcare. Also to close healthcare disparity gaps. KHC is well respected in the community and has incredible connections to major stakeholders in his great at implementing change.
How can the KHC best coordinate and align action to change health and the healthcare system? Explain.
I think this is one of their strongest attributes are the respect they have and their connections to all major health care stakeholders in the community by engaging them and connecting them with others to achieve the same goal.
