Meet the inaugural Health Equity Catalyst Fund initiatives
Teams around the world will put new funding to good use helping address urgent global needs
September 9, 2022
Over the past two years, COVID-19 has highlighted cracks in health care systems that are leaving the most vulnerable behind. That’s why our Social Business Innovation group’s health equity team launched the Health Equity Catalyst Fund and put out a call for employees to pitch ideas to help address urgent global health needs.
After an arduous submission and review process, teams across the Merck world were ecstatic when they found out their initiatives would move ahead with support from the $1 million fund. Watch as we reveal the good news:
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A catalyst for change
The $1 million Health Equity Catalyst Fund empowers local teams to help improve equitable health outcomes by engaging at the community level to remove barriers to care and/or by strengthening health systems to deliver on high-quality and accountable care. The fund will support 15 initiative across 13 countries in regions with high unmet needs and the potential for significant population health impact.
“Our company has a long legacy of helping to address the social determinants of health, and we’ve always taken on society’s most urgent health challenges motivated by our purpose of helping save and improve lives,” said Carmen Villar, VP of social business innovation. “The Health Equity Catalyst Fund provides another opportunity for us to take an all-company approach to advance health equity at both the global and local levels.”
The selected initiatives focus on a variety of themes and priorities, including community-based vaccination support, bringing cancer screenings into communities, helping patients with transportation barriers and much more.
As the fund’s 15 initiatives move forward, they’ll serve as great examples of how Merck can win as one team, collaborate and innovate to advance health equity.
