Dr. Eboni Price-Haywood: Innovating Toward Health Equity

DDr. Eboni Price-Haywoodr. Eboni Price-Haywood is part of building the next generation of physicians focused on advancing health equity.

“I am a public health advocate with a focus on serving a very specific population; it is a population that I feel I am from,” says Price-Haywood. “Where I am today in my career … my focus and perspective as a physician is about serving that community.”

Announced earlier this year as the associate dean for health equity and public health and professor of medicine at the Xavier Ochsner College of Medicine (XOCOM), Price-Haywood has a background in medical education. After losing her father to cancer at a young age — he was only 35 — she originally planned on being a cancer researcher. Her career took a different trajectory as she focused on issues of public health, serving underserved populations and reducing disparities.

“Part of the known strategies for improving outcomes in those populations is actually diversifying the workforce with physicians that are reflective of the community,” Price-Haywood says. “For me, it made sense to be part of creating a medical school that is mission-aligned.”

 XOCOM is being launched by Xavier University of Louisiana, recognized as one of the top producers of Black physicians in the U.S. Although Price-Haywood did not attend Xavier for her undergraduate education, she is a Louisiana native who participated in the university’s high school Star outreach program. CHEMStar, BIOStar and PHYStar, which still exist, are designed to be taken the summer before a student enrolls in the corresponding course.

 “Those programs are designed to help students learn some basics before they go into that science in high school,” she explains. “That was part of boosting my confidence in the sciences because I had been prepared.”

 Physician-executive/medical educator is how Price-Haywood describes herself. She earned master of public health and master of medical management and health/healthcare administration degrees in addition to her medical education and training.

 Price-Haywood has worked with Ochsner Health for more than a decade, inclusive of service as medical director for the Ochsner Xavier Institute for Health Equity and Research. Over the past five years, she has collaborated with colleagues at the university on areas of healthcare research, community outreach and engagement, health advocacy and education and workforce development. She has interacted with Xavier undergraduate and graduate students through the internships that the institute offers.

 Being part of the development and launch of this medical school is incredibly rewarding. “I would say it’s the pinnacle of my career to be part of a process that’s developing a program for the next generation of physicians,” she notes. “This is an opportunity to be innovative and create an educational curriculum that fits the needs of our communities and is also, I would say, tailored to the needs of those populations who traditionally have had difficulty navigating the healthcare system.”

This involves creating curriculum where there will be focus around public health and community health training in not only the academic portfolio but also in the work done in the community. Part of Price-Haywood’s responsibility in the development of XOCOM has been working towards making sure that clinical training environments align with the mission of the medical school on addressing health disparities in diverse communities.

XOCOM has been granted candidate status by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, the accrediting body for M.D.-degree medical education programs in the U.S. The next step is receiving preliminary accreditation, after which a timeline can be established for accepting medical students. “My focus, in order to be solution-oriented, is to create and improve community health by not only focusing on the patients or the community, but a big part of it is focusing on the workforce,” Price-Haywood says. “So, I do interventions and create programming that’s focused around people and focused around teams in order to effect change.”