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Health Equity Symposium Highlights Innovative Solutions to Complex Health Challenges
February 21, 2024
Our mission is to develop innovative medicines that address serious unmet medical needs of people living with disease. However, we know that for many patients, especially those in underserved communities, social determinants of health (SDOH) can severely limit access to healthcare, reduce quality of life, and drive health inequality around the world. That’s why we look beyond the lab for opportunities to have additional impact on the health of humanity, with a focus on health equity.
We designed Alnylam Challengers, our signature community impact program, to address health equity challenges by investing in entrepreneurs and non-profit organizations developing innovative solutions to the many complex issues that underserved communities face. And we’re excited about how this program has evolved and expanded.
Three years after we launched the program, we're now partnering with organizations in five countries where Alnylam operates, including Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In the U.S., through our partnership with Acumen America, we invest in social impact-driven companies that are developing novel solutions to some of the most challenging SDOH-related issues.
Alnylam and Acumen Leaders with Panelists Emily Brown and Jonathan KumarConvening Like-Minded Change-Makers
As part of Alnylam Challengers, we aim to convene entrepreneurs, community partners and our employees to explore the challenges we collectively face and highlight inspiring solutions. We recently held one such event – our first-ever Alnylam Challengers Health Equity Symposium – at our headquarters in Cambridge, MA. This event was open to community members, industry partners and aspiring social entrepreneurs and was webcast to our employees around the globe.
Hosted by Sara Nochur, Alnylam’s Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer, it featured Amon Anderson, Director of Acumen America, and the founders of two social enterprises we’ve supported through our investments, Emily Brown of Attane Health and Jonathan Kumar of Samaritan. The conversation explored the origins of both organizations, their entrepreneurial approaches to improving access to nutritious food and housing and the critical need for stakeholder collaboration and advocacy.
Improving Health Equity Requires Bold New Ideas and Cross Sector Collaboration
Watch the Alnylam Challengers Health Equity Symposium recap videoEmily Brown knows firsthand how important it is to have access to healthy and culturally appropriate foods when managing chronic health conditions. Informed by her own experience providing for her children’s unique health needs, she built Attane Health, a digital marketplace for people living with chronic conditions who need access to healthy and diet specific foods.
Attane’s approach includes working with health plans, including Medicaid, to refer members, especially those experiencing food insecurity. In addition to the marketplace, Attane also provides educational support through 1-on-1 tele-coaching. For Emily, “food is medicine,” and making food accessible, inclusive, culturally relevant and integrated with the healthcare system is key to addressing this high unmet need.
Jonathan Kumar also drew inspiration from his lived experience, having grown up in an immigrant family living in poverty. Using his expertise as a designer, Jonathan created Samaritan to empower people without a home to gain the social and financial capital needed to leave the street. Samaritan is a digital platform that provides financial incentives and social support for unhoused individuals as they take steps toward building a more stable life. They work with a network, including managed care organizations and community hospitals, to refer individuals to the platform and help them use the app. Their model also allows individual donors to support Samaritan Members directly or give to an “Action Fund,” that pools donations together to support a given community.
Actions You Can Take to Support This Work
The investments made by Acumen and Alnylam help fund Attane and Samaritan’s missions but successful social enterprises require broader support to scale. If you would like to donate, offer networking opportunities, or get more involved with Attane Health or Samaritan, here are a few actions you can take.
Attane Health:
- Support mothers enrolled in Attane Health’s nutrition care programs by donating to their Community Based Organization (CBO) partner, Altruisim Inc.
- You can support Attane Health in expanding their impact by introducing them to health plans and systems. Please reach out to CSR@alnylam.com to be connected.
- To support Attane Health in raising capital, introductions to family offices or angel investors specific to health equity are welcome. Please reach out to CSR@alnylam.com to be connected.
Samaritan:
- To empower an individual Samaritan Member, you can sign up on the Samaritan website or download the Samaritan app.
- To empower all Samaritan Members in a given city, you can invest in Samaritan’s Action Fund.
- Note: 100% of every contribution ends up directly in the hands of Samaritan Members and is all tax-deductible.
We are incredibly grateful for the work that our panelists are doing and look forward to future convenings to explore bold new solutions to issues of health equity and access to healthcare. To learn more about our approach to corporate responsibility, Alnylam Challengers or to partner with us, please get in touch by emailing CSR@alnylam.com.
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