HealthCity’s Top 5 Articles of 2024

Effective healthcare goes beyond the four walls of any one hospital or health system. HealthCity’s most-read stories of 2024 reflect this and offer a window into how Boston Medical Center (BMC) Health System has been expanding its programming and deepening its impact in holistic care that takes into account the whole person, their living environment, and beyond.  

From a candid conversation about medical racism between Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley and Dr. Uché Blackstock to the launch of an innovative rooftop farm in an underserved community in the heart of Boston, these five articles capture key moments in healthcare’s evolution. They tell stories of adaptation and change at BMC Health System and beyond: They showcase healthcare providers confronting bias in emergency rooms, addiction specialists bringing lived experience to the forefront of treatment, and hospitals reimagining their role in environmental sustainability. 

#5 “A Health Equity Trailblazer Shares Her Own Story of Medical Gaslighting” 

In celebration of Black History Month, Boston Medical Center (BMC) Health System hosted a conversation between Uché Blackstock, MD and Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley from Massachusetts’ 7th district. Blackstock, a prominent thought leader on bias and racism in healthcare, shared a personal story with the Congresswoman about her own experience with medical racism and gaslighting which appears in her book, New York Times best-seller Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons With Racism in Medicine. The author and leader shares how deeply rooted myths and misconceptions have affected medical outcomes. More can be found on HealthCity’s February coverage of the event.  

#4 “Farming the Boston Skyline: BMCHS Grows Sustainability Efforts Through a New Rooftop Farm”

As part of its commitment to community health and environmental sustainability, BMC added 4,915 feet of growing space on top of its three-story office building on Mass Ave., aptly named Newmarket Farm. BMC’s newest rooftop farm differs from traditional rooftop farms in its ability to produce high-yield leafy vegetables and fruiting crops rather than just sod and perennial crops, which are more typically seen. Learn more about the fruitful returns Newmarket Farm has brought to the community since its opening.  

#3 “BMC’s Inaugural Addiction Conference Will Convene Experts and People With Lived Experience to Spark Change” 

Together for Hope, hosted by the Grayken Center for Addiction, was a two-day conference that brought together researchers, clinicians, students, community members, and those with lived experience of drug use and substance use disorder and explored the themes of intersectionality, policy, harm reduction, and advances and challenges in treatment. In this Q&A, the conference planners share what they hoped participants would learn from BMC’s cutting-edge research, from people with lived experience of SUD, and from each other. Additional day-of conference coverage can be found here.  

#2 Environmental Injustice Heats Up Health Risks for Kids in Marginalized Communities

BMC’s Health Equity Rounds is a case-based conference series that confronts the effects of bias and racism in healthcare with the goal of identifying solutions rooted in equity. This case study of an 8-year-old’s ER visit showcases how and why the summer’s heat is more oppressive depending on where you live —and what physicians can do about it.  

#1 How Oakwell, Founded by BMCHS and Omicelo, Is Revolutionizing Sustainability in Healthcare

This summer, BMC Health System partnered with Omicelo, a private equity investment group, to launch Oakwell, a sustainability management and real estate optimization firm. Oakwell works in tandem with health systems to develop custom energy efficiency and reduced consumption programs that reduce system cost and can support reinvestment in patient care. Learn how Oakwell has the capability to improve patient outcomes not only at BMCHS, but for hundreds of other healthcare systems as well.