Video Excerpt: Shreya Kangovi – Update on Community Health Workers Project

Over the seven years since she began researching and testing her “Community Health Workers” (CHW) concept, University of Pennsylvania Assistant Professor of Medicine Shreya Kangovi has led a team in developing a program of health care facilitation in low-income communities that has become a national model. Kangovi, MD, MSHP, is also a Senior Fellow at Penn’s Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics (LDI). She presented an update on the expanding program at the 2018 Penn Health Policy Retreat.

Called “Individualized Management towards Patient-Centered Targets” (IMPaCT), the program utilizes individuals from those communities as helpers and navigators assisting chronically ill neighborhood residents in getting the care they need.  IMPaCT is now the core concept of the Penn Center for Community Health Workers operated by Penn Medicine.

The program has also been adopted by the Veterans Affairs Medical Center and Keystone First, the largest Medicaid managed care provider in southeastern Pennsylvania. The Penn Center is also providing implementation assistance to partner organizations, including Partners HealthCare and UPMC Health Plan.