Pursuit of Health Equity in Healthcare Systems: Quality Improvement Principles to Inform Your Approach

February 25th, 2025

Ndidi Unaka, MD, Chief Health Equity Officer (CHEO) for Stanford Medicine Children’s Health (SMCH)

Dr. Unaka is the inaugural Chief Health Equity Officer (CHEO) for Stanford Medicine Children’s Health (SMCH) and a Clinical Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Stanford University School of Medicine. In her role as CHEO, she will work to 1) establish health equity as a strategic priority, 2) develop a culture that promotes adopting an equity lens across the care delivery system, and 3) foster an internal focus on eliminating health inequities building community partnerships to support efforts. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Oregon in 2003 and graduated from the University of Michigan Medical School in 2007. She completed pediatric residency and chief residency at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and subsequently joined faculty in the Division of Hospital Medicine at Cincinnati Children’s in 2011.

In addition to her clinical role as a pediatric hospitalist, Dr. Unaka served as the Associate Program Director of the Pediatric Residency Program from 2011 – January 2022. Prior to her transition to SMCH in July 2024, Dr. Unaka worked on institution-level community health initiatives at Cincinnati Children’s. She served as the Medical Director of Quality Improvement and Data Analytics for Cincinnati Children’s Medicaid- focused, accountable care organization (HealthVine). In this role, she developed and led initiatives designed to improve the quality and efficiency of health care delivery to HealthVine’s patient population, and helped lead the change management associated with the movement toward a population-health care model that improves quality, narrows equity gaps, streamlines care, and reduces costs. Dr. Unaka also partnered with several colleagues to lead system-wide quality improvement initiatives including work accelerated via learning networks including co-leading Cincinnati Children’s Health Equity Network, which supports the equity-oriented improvement work of clinical teams across the institution. Additionally, Dr. Unaka was a faculty lead within the Fisher Child Health Equity Center, and specifically focused on working with operations leaders to ensure equity was embedded within all strategic plans, goals, and metrics across all sites of care