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    • Empathy in Action: Mental Health
    • Empathy in Action: Diabetes
    • Meals: Diabetes
    • Nutrition & Resources: Kidney Health
    • Nutrition & Resources: Maternal Health
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Opportunity

Putting health care dollars to work to solve health in real life. We test & build discrete health programs that are downstream from population health, but upstream of acute and other medically-oriented care. We’re flipping the script, developing health programs outside of health care, referring back in to clinical touch points only as necessary.

What about upstream work on social determinants of health? Our work complements existing work on social determinants of health. Results from our shorter-term mid-stream programs, using primarily food, exercise, social connection, and other social supports as chosen by people themselves, can be used to further drive the policy and strategies necessary to shift the prioritization of our society’s investments in health towards where existing work suggests there is greater long-term return on investment.

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News

  • May 15, 2024 – Mini Kahlon, PhD, presented an abstract titled “Effect of a Layperson-Delivered Empathy-Focused Telephone Program on Glycemic Management for FQHC Patients With Unmanaged Diabetes: A Randomized Trial,” co-authored with Nazan Aksan, PhD, at the 2024 Society for General Internal Medicine (SGIM) Annual Meeting.
  • Mar 21, 2024 – Mini Kahlon, PhD, published an editorial, Understanding and Intervening in Nutrition-Related Health Disparities, Advances in Nutrition.
  • Dec 8, 2023 – Mini Kahlon speaks on Food as Medicine at the 2023 Annual Texas NMDoH Consortium Conference: Advancing Research, Policy and Practice
  • Oct 10, 2023 – Factor Health Founder, Mini Kahlon, PhD, speaks at  HLTH 2023 on “The Benefits of Being Neighborly“
  • Oct 6, 2023 – ‘Listening for Health’ panel at 2023 Healthier Texas Summit featuring Factor Health team. Agenda | Register
  • July 25, 2023 – Factor Health receives a $300,000 Empowering Health grant from UnitedHealthcare 
  • June 8, 2023 – Virtual Event: Nutrition Incentive Hub’s National Convening virtual panel, Food Meets Medicine: What We Need to Connect Nutrition Security with Healthcare | Register Now
  • June 7, 2023 – Webinar: Food Is Medicine: Program Designs and Strategies in Texas | Register Now 
  • June 6, 2023 – Whitepaper release: Scaling the Impact of Food on Health: Cross-Sectoral Research Opportunities
  • Apr 12, 2023 – Psychiatry Online: Effect of a Layperson-Delivered Telephone Program for People With Depressive Symptoms
  • Mar 8, 2023 – The Other 80 podcast: Building Health Ecosystems with Dr. Mini Kahlon 
  • Feb 15, 2023 – Stat: How ‘empathetic engagement’ can increase access to mental health care
  • Jan 2, 2023 – The New York Times: The 7-Day Happiness Challenge – Day 2: The Secret Power of the 8-Minute Phone Call. 
  • Oct 25, 2022 – Axios Finish Line: Lonely America
  • Sep 15, 2022 – Dell Med Feature Story: A Prescription for Broccoli 
  • July 2022 – El Mundo: Los Niños Deben Comer Más Vegetales/Children Should Eat More Vegetables. 
  • June 2022 – Austin American Statesman: Dell Medical School study: Kids will eat vegetables if they are available.
  • May 2022 -Christensen Institute White Paper: You Are What You Treat. Profiles Factor Health as an innovative business model.
  • May 2022 – Release: Easy, Flexible Access to Produce, Resources Boosts Healthy Eating for Central Texas Kids.  JAMA Network Open Paper.
  • Dec 2021 – The Clayton Christensen Institute: To improve individual lives, a top-down approach won’t work
  • Nov 2021 – Health Affairs Lunch & Learn: The future of health system transformation with Mini Kahlon | Register now
  • May 2021 – AMA | Reflection on results of trial assessing the impact of layperson calls on mental health | Video | Article
  • Spring 2021 – Texas Standard  |  CNN  |  Forbes  | Healthline  |  KXAN  | Scientific American: Empathetic phone calls from laypersons reduce loneliness, depression in older adults
  • Mar 8, 2021 – Scripps National News: Sunshine Calls help improve mood and health
  • Feb 23, 2021 – JAMA Psychiatry: Effect of layperson-delivered, empathy-focused program of telephone calls on loneliness, depression, and anxiety among adults during the COVID-19 pandemic: A randomized clinical trial

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  • About Factor Health (1 min video)
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We’re working on identifying, testing and scaling promising programs that are delivered in people’s lives to rapidly improve their health. Sign up for a quarterly update on what we’re learning as we collaborate with payers, researchers and social providers.

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