Big Health Event Promotes Community Wellness and Education

Big Health Event Promotes Community Wellness and Education

With a free health fair, Ochsner takes steps to improve Louisiana’s health outcomes

By Anne Paglia | Photos: Peter Forest

Raising Louisiana’s national health ranking from last place into the top 40 by 2030 is an immense undertaking, but together with partners, Ochsner Health is up for the challenge. On Saturday, September 17, Ochsner and the Urban League of Louisiana held the Big Health Event at the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center to move the state closer toward this goal.

Featuring health screenings, demos, conversations and activities, the free health fair equipped members of the public with resources and knowledge needed to approach healthier living. The event was inspired by the Healthy State by 2030 vision, created by Ochsner and state leaders, to raise Louisiana’s national health standing over the remainder of the decade.

“By offering events like this, we can empower people with education and provide them access to tools for living healthier lives, leading to healthier communities and ultimately to a healthier state,” said Yvens Laborde, MD, Medical Director of Global Health Education, Medical Director of Public Health and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Ochsner.

With approximately 1,300 people in attendance, the Big Health Event was the largest Healthy State gathering to date. As a key organizer of the event, Dr. Laborde oversaw planning and promotion, moderated a panel on men’s health and participated in a Healthy State panel. He was thrilled to share that the event exceeded expectations not only in terms of turnout but also the number of sponsors and screenings conducted. According to information collected onsite, providers and healthcare workers carried out over 3,400 community health screenings and educational interactions at the Big Health Event.

Yvens Laborde, MD, (seated center) and the men’s health panel at the Big Health Event.

Photos: Peter Forest

Identifying diseases early with free screenings

Health screenings allowed Ochsner’s team to address a number of chronic diseases “in real time,” Dr. Laborde noted. In addition to common tests like blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, weight and vision, Ochsner offered less common screenings like hip and cognitive assessments and on-site mammograms. One critical test was for peripheral arterial disease (PAD), an often overlooked condition in which plaque builds up in noncoronary arteries and restricts blood flow.

“It is significantly underdiagnosed because of a lack of education,” said Margaret Messore, RN, internal consultant and former manager of Ochsner’s Heart and Vascular Institute. “We have so many people with comorbidities in the state, but you don’t usually see the patient get tested for PAD unless they present with symptoms. By then, it’s pretty advanced.”

While PAD is often treated with lifestyle changes at its early stages, making early diagnosis critical, it can require more severe interventions like amputation once it advances. Understanding the pressing need for more testing, Margaret and her colleagues Randy Englert, MD, and William Bennett, MD, advocated for adding PAD to the state’s core panel of Healthy State initiative tests. They succeeded, and set up a booth for PAD testing at the event, allowing them to identify people with the disease early on.

In addition to testing about 50 people, Margaret and her team were able to educate even more attendees on the disease’s risk factors and its higher prevalence in the Black community.

“We felt that our services, while also being educational, would be helpful to people who had comorbidities like a prior stroke or heart attack,” Margaret said. “Unlike cholesterol and blood pressure screenings, which are commonly done in a health fair setting, PAD testing hasn’t ever been offered.”

By offering events like this, we can empower people with education and provide them access to tools for living healthier lives, leading to healthier communities and ultimately to a healthier state.

” — Dr. Yvens Laborde

Removing barriers to healthy living

Given that 33% of Louisiana residents identify as Black or African American and a number of health issues disproportionately affect this community—including high blood pressure, diabetes and stroke—Ochsner partnered with the Urban League of Louisiana to promote the event and encourage attendance. A nationwide organization with local chapters, the Urban League supports underserved communities in securing economic self reliance, power and equity.

“The Urban League and other community institutions already have a well-established reputation for being supportive of the African American community,” Dr. Laborde said. “We were naturally aligned in terms of vision, mission and everything we wanted to accomplish.”

The Big Health Event featured booths with information from across the system.

Photos: Peter Forest

Event attendees had ample opportunities to learn about health and wellness, but the preventative care services were particularly important. Socioeconomic barriers make it difficult for many Louisianans to receive adequate health care, and community events like the Big Health Event fill a gaping need.

“We constantly discuss the availability of care in the rural areas and the number of people who are either on Medicaid or not insured at all,” Margaret said. “Their access to healthcare is significantly lower.”

“Events like this address inequities in marginalized communities,” Dr. Laborde added. “If you can actually move the needle in areas where people are most at risk, it has a solidarity effect. It may seem like we’re focusing on a particular group, but in doing so, we become more effective at improving everybody’s overall health and well-being.”

Yvens Laborde, MD, speaks at the Big Health Event.

Photos: Peter Forest

Sparking children’s interest in science

The Big Health Event also offered child friendly programs like STEM activities, sports and cooking demonstrations to excite them about health and wellness at an early age. At the STEM booth, children could talk to a scientist, assemble a DNA model and understand how genes translate into disease. More than 340elementary, middle and high school students from nearly 70 schools engaged in the healthcare-focused Kids’ Zone at the event.

“We wanted to expose young people to STEM opportunities that they traditionally don’t have access to, and do so in a fun way with individuals they can identify with,” Dr. Laborde said. “It’s difficult to quantify the outcome of these activities, but some of them showed as much enthusiasm for STEM as they do for basketball.”

Following the success of the first event, Dr. Laborde and other staff at Ochsner are looking to replicate it in other areas throughout the state.

“We wanted to normalize health from a community vantagepoint, provide resources to empower people and educate them on how to take responsibility for their health and well-being for themselves and their community,” Dr. Laborde said. “We accomplished all those things.”