DEFINING Underserved Communities in Healthcare | Ashish Rishi

Welcome to the launch episode of our special new series on Underserved Communities in Healthcare. On this episode, Caitlin and Clarinda are joined by Ashish Rishi, Founder and CEO of Unwritten Health. Ashish has dedicated his career to making healthcare more inclusive, not as a moral cause, but as a practical necessity. He serves as a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for IHI-READI, a Horizon Europe initiative on health equity and research infrastructure. By consistently asking 'WHO ISN'T IN THE DATA?', Ashish's work examines how healthcare decisions break, not at the point of failure, but long before it. In this important conversation, we set the scene for our whole series by defining the terms 'underserved' and 'under-represented', which are often used interchangeably in healthcare. Sharing real personal stories from his life and work, Ashish delves into why certain communities are consistently underserved, what that experience looks like, and how it shakes the foundations of healthcare for society at large. Ashish also shares his vision for the future and a call to action for healthcare decision-makers. Our thanks to our Conversation Partner, Unwritten Health for making this episode possible. Unwritten Health offer a patient experience data platform that can be used to generate evidence that your healthcare products work safely and equitably across the populations they serve. Note: While this conversation was developed in collaboration with Unwritten Health, Not Just Patients retained final control over the content, questions, and editorial direction of the episode.  **Abbreviations** GCSE - General Certificate of Secondary Education (UK) **Resources** - The Frequency of Exclusion Report - Inclusion Debt | The Compounding Cost of Skipping Patient Experience Data **Chapters** 00:00:00 - Introductions and episode overview 00:01:59 - What makes a community underserved in healthcare? 00:07:36 - Ashish's motivations for his work in health equity 00:14:55 - How being underserved plays out across the healthcare journey 00:25:35 - Why are some communities underserved? 00:39:51 - Impact of health inequities on communities and the health system 00:45:26 - What should healthcare leaders do differently? 00:52:39 - Tough questions this series should keep asking 00:53:20 - Ashish's vision for an ideal health system Let us know what you thought of this episode Follow us or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts Website: notjustpatients.com LinkedIn: Not Just Patients Instagram: @notjustpatients Substack: https://notjustpatients.substack.com/ Have feedback or suggestions? We'd love to hear from you. Email: info@notjustpatients.com