PROVIDENCE, R.I., Sept. 23, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Virgin Pulse, the largest global employee health and wellbeing company, today announced that Dr. Jessica Isom has joined the Virgin Pulse Science Advisory Board and will work closely with Virgin Pulse’s chief medical officer, Dr. Rajiv Kumar, on strategic initiatives designed to advance health equity and eliminate racial and ethnic mental health disparities. The Virgin Pulse Science Advisory Board, a renowned group of experts, scientists, clinicians and industry thought leaders, serves a critical advisory function, ensuring that Virgin Pulse’s vision, platform and product offerings are rooted in the most current, relevant scientific evidence and clinical best practices.
“We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Isom to the Virgin Pulse Science Advisory Board,” said Rajiv Kumar, M.D., Virgin Pulse’s Chief Medical Officer and President of the Virgin Pulse Institute. “The COVID-19 pandemic and its disproportionate impact on minority populations around the world have further exposed the vast inequities and inherent biases in healthcare that exist today as a result of long-standing systemic racism. We are seeing the impact of those disparities everywhere, including in the workplace. Though well documented, the connection between diversity, equity, inclusion, and physical, mental and social health is often underestimated by organizations and business leaders. Virgin Pulse is committed to helping organizations address these issues by ensuring that our products and solutions continually support clients and members with the most up to date information, resources and content in these areas. We are fortunate to have someone of Dr. Isom’s caliber, knowledge, and experience helping us, our clients and our members to understand, navigate and proactively address these urgent issues as we strive to deliver more inclusive and equitable health and wellbeing.”
As a strategic advisor to the organization, Dr. Isom will work closely with the Virgin Pulse product team to elevate and expand the company’s diversity, equity, inclusion and mental health offerings and content library. In tandem, she will provide guidance on how clients and members can and should leverage their wellbeing programs and the Virgin Pulse platform to build more inclusive workplace cultures.
About Dr. Isom
Dr. Isom is practicing physician with extensive experience in racial health disparities and ethnic mental health issues. She is a board-certified community psychiatrist working at Codman Square Health Center in Boston and Clinical Instructor in the Yale University Department of Psychiatry. While completing her psychiatry residency at Yale University, Dr. Isom was the Chief of Medical Education as well as the Chief Resident of Diversity and Inclusion. Her professional interests include working towards eradicating racial and ethnic mental health disparities, mitigating the impact of implicit racial bias on clinical care, and the use of a community focused population health approach in psychiatric practice. Her anti-racism teaching highlights the history of medical racism, interpersonal challenges in interracial interactions and provides a language for naming and responding to racism at multiple levels.
Dr. Isom has also been elected to the Councilor Position for the Massachusetts Psychiatric Society where her focus on social justice and health equity provides an opportunity to improve the care provided to marginalized populations in the state. She has continued to work with the Yale Department of Psychiatry residency program as a faculty track consultant leader for the Social Justice and Health Equity Curriculum. She was also recently selected to co-chair an advisory group on structural racism for Psychiatric Services.
Dr. Isom joins Science Advisory Board colleagues David Batman, MSC, MB.CHB., D.R.C.O.G., D.I.H., MFOM, FFOM; David Katz, M.D., MPH, FACPM, FACP, FACLM; and Ron Goetzel, Ph.D., Gary Smithson, M.D., MBA and Jackie Kosecoff, former healthcare CEO and advisor, M.S., B.A., in creating unmatched strategic health insights. For more information about the Virgin Pulse Science Advisory Board and the Virgin Pulse Institute.
About Virgin Pulse
Virgin Pulse is the world’s largest, most comprehensive digital health, wellbeing and engagement company. Founded as part of Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, the company is focused on engaging users every day in building and sustaining healthy behaviors and driving measurable outcomes for employees, employers and health plans. Virgin Pulse is fusing high-tech with high-touch and powerful AI and orchestration capabilities to deliver the industry’s only Homebase for HealthTM with benefits navigation and live coaching to support clients and members across the entire health, wellbeing and benefits lifecycle—from screening and assessment to activation, behavior change and the adoption of sustainable, healthy habits to condition management support. Today, 12 million+ users in more than 190 countries, spanning over 3,300 organizations—many of the Fortune 500 and Best Places to Work—rely on Virgin Pulse’s digital and live solutions to change their lives—and businesses—for good. To learn more, visit VirginPulse.com and follow us on Twitter or LinkedIn.
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