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The mission of the Lloyd H. Dean Institute for Humankindness & Health Justice is to bring to life a tenet of CommonSpirit Health —"Health justice starts with human kindness," says the institute's president.

Dr. Alisahah Jackson has been at the helm of the institute since it was founded two years ago to honor CommonSpirit's then-CEO as he neared retirement. She was formerly CommonSpirit's vice president for population health innovation and policy.

Lloyd H. Dean was one of two inaugural leaders when CommonSpirit was created in 2019 by the merger of Dignity Health, where he had been CEO, and Catholic Health Initiatives. The merger formed the nation's largest Catholic health care system.

Dean stayed in CommonSpirit's top post alone when his co-CEO, Kevin E. Lofton, who had led CHI, retired in mid-2020.

"When Lloyd Dean retired or made the announcement that he was retiring in 2022, there was a lot of conversation around what could we do to honor the amazing work and legacy that Lloyd has contributed over the span of his career," Jackson recalls.

Jackson says Dean was a longtime advocate of the healing power of kindness. She remembers hearing him expound on the topic when he was a featured speaker at a health care conference she attended many years ago.

"Someone posed the question to him, 'What's the most innovative thing that you've seen in health care?'" she recalls. "And this is what he said: 'The most innovative thing that I've seen in health care yet is a simple and proven idea: that kindness has the power to heal.'"

Kindness trademark
Under Dean's leadership, "Hello humankindness" became part of the Dignity Health brand. The system in 2013 launched a campaign around the catchphrase. The campaign's goal was "to bring humanity and human connection back into health care." "Hello humankindess" and the related campaign is now part of the CommonSpirit brand.

Jackson says the institute is evidence based in its work to show how kindness is linked to better health.

"There's decades and decades of science around the importance of kindness, compassion and trust," she says. "We at the institute are really wanting to make sure people understand that this is not soft science. These are things that have actually been shown and proven over and over again to drive outcomes, improve patient outcomes, improve patient experience."

Jackson and her staff can point to a multitude of research linking kindness to better health. For example, researchers at The Ohio State University published a study last year that found doing good deeds for others can ease symptoms of depression and anxiety.

However, there is also a bounty of evidence showing that the ties between Americans are fraying. This includes studies the U.S. surgeon general pointed to last year in an advisory that called loneliness and isolation a national epidemic.

"There's decades and decades of science around the importance of kindness, compassion and trust. We at the institute are really wanting to make sure people understand that this is not soft science.” – Dr. Alisahah Jackson

"We're in this time where I think it's important that we reconnect back to our shared humanity," Jackson says. "We really feel at CommonSpirit that one of the ways to do that is to teach people how to exhibit human kindness and to really support a culture of human kindness, not only in our facilities, but also out in every community that we serve."

Strategic priorities
As the institute's president, Jackson says she is focused on bringing awareness to its work, on seeing that the body of knowledge around the connection between kindness and health continues to grow, and on finding ways to use that knowledge to support frontline care providers.

The institute's work follows four strategic priorities: education, training, research and evaluation. Specific projects the institute has supported include research or studies to:

• Understand barriers to peripheral arterial disease screening with a focus on equity gaps in Sacramento, California
• Use digital patient navigation to address COVID vaccine hesitancy in vulnerable populations in California and Arkansas
• Integrate legal support in primary care to address complex social needs to improve health and reduce health care costs in Port Orchard, Washington

Brisa Urquieta de Hernandez is system director of operations on the institute's five-person staff. Hernandez has a doctorate in geography and urban regional analysis.

Her role at the institute is to develop partnerships and strategies and oversee pilot projects of innovative care models, all with a focus on advancing health equity and improving health outcomes.

She says she brings a social science perspective to the institute's work. "When you're thinking about leveraging the science of kindness, compassion, empathy and trust, what does that mean?" she says, explaining the questions she poses. "What's that nuance in the interactions between our patients and our providers, our care team, the broader staff, the system, etcetera?"

Hernandez notes that because CommonSpirit has care sites in 24 states, the system can look at its impact on health across diverse geographic locations and demographics. She says that provides an opportunity to take the pulse of the country and pursue the best opportunities to address disparities and promote health justice.

In October, Hernandez oversaw the launch of the institute's webinar series. The monthly hourlong discussions will spotlight different aspects of building a health care culture that integrates the intersection of human kindness and health justice to support patients and providers and that advances the best outcomes.

Promoting reconnection
Jackson says the institute is considered a department of CommonSpirit. It works closely with diverse stakeholders across the system, including clinical leaders, philanthropy staff and the communications/marketing team for support and expertise, she notes.

Dean himself is lending more than his name to the institute. He is an adviser and he helps drum up financial support. In September, the institute had its first Humankindness & Health Justice Summit, a half-day virtual event billed as "the first ever convening of national thought leaders to share insights and best practices and more about how the science of kindness, compassion, empathy and trust can accelerate health justice."

Dean sat in for a chat at the summit alongside current CommonSpirit CEO Wright Lassiter III. Jackson says the chat was "on the importance of this work and making sure that there is an abundance mindset when it comes to thinking about human kindness and how we actually deliver human kindness at every touchpoint."

In January, the institute plans to launch The Common Good Academy, which will offer training to clinical providers across CommonSpirit who have responsibilities related to the system's health equity goals.

Jackson identifies goals for the institute that are practical, such as finding ways to ease the strains on clinicians, and lofty, such as driving a global conversation on the importance and value of taking care of each other.

"That's my aspiration, that we become kind of this global think tank, if you will, on how to reconnect people back to our shared humanity and really drive improvements in health justice with the foundation of human kindness," she says.