![Dr. Esther Choo](/media/zdpj4uox/choo_esther_081420.jpg?rxy=0.38721804511278196,0.310599439941138&height=775&quality=70&v=1daf954f328fe10))
Dr. Esther Choo
Associate Professor in the Center for Policy and Research in Emergency Medicine, Oregon Health & Science University and Founding Member for TIME’S UP Healthcare
Dr. Esther Choo
Associate Professor in the Center for Policy and Research in Emergency Medicine, Oregon Health & Science University and Founding Member for TIME’S UP Healthcare
Biography
"We wanted to send our sincerest thanks for joining us today! You were an incredible hit among our team. Hearing you talk about issues that our team is so incredibly passionate about was enlightening and energizing. I know it can be challenging to get a sense of the audience's reaction via a virtual event, so I wanted to share just a small selection of our team member's reactions. I also joined our Marketing meeting immediately following and the team was effusive in their praise. Let's just say one team member said, 'I could have listened to her all day!'. Other team members made comments like, 'It was absolutely amazing, thought provoking, candid, etc. My favorite event I've been to at Zocdoc.'; 'THIS WAS SO GOOD!'; 'This was easily my favorite Zocdoc event of all time. WOW.'" -Zocdoc
A physician and popular health and science communicator, Dr. Esther Choo is known as a bold and innovative voice on gender and racial equity in healthcare and an advocate for new frameworks for building positive and productive workplaces.
A graduate of Yale University and Yale School of Medicine, Dr. Choo is an NIH-funded health services and health policy researcher who takes a data-driven approach to organizational change. She is also an emergency physician and Professor of Emergency Medicine in the Center for Policy & Research at Oregon Health & Science University. She is a founding member of TIME'S UP Healthcare, which advocates for safety and equity in the healthcare workforce, serves on the board of TIME'S UP, and co-founded Equity Quotient, a firm that assesses organizational culture to help create a culture of equity, safety, and respect. During the pandemic, she has helped raise awareness of the critical shortage of personal protective equipment in hospitals, serves as an advisor for GetUsPPE.org, and is Chief Medical Officer for JUPE, which builds mobile healthcare units.
She speaks and advises organizations on improving equity in the workplace in the provision of healthcare. Her commentary on the culture of healthcare institutions has appeared in The New England Journal of Medicine, Harvard Business Review, NBC Think, Self, Quartz, and The Washington Post, and in a recurring column for The Lancet focused on inequities in healthcare. She is a regular guest on CNN and MSNBC and has been an invited speaker for The Aspen Institute, The Atlantic Pulse health summit, TED Talks, and Accenture. Her work in the coronavirus pandemic has been featured in In Style and People magazine.
Dr. Choo's talks balance data with humor and warmth, presenting the case for innovating our workplaces to be better for everyone and providing feasible approaches to getting there.
Speaker Videos
TED: How Health Workers Are Responding to the COVID-19 Pandemic
How TIME’S UP Is Tackling Injustice in the World of Medicine| Atlantic Live
Can We Create a Health Care Culture of Excellence? | UCSF Lecture
Health Care Workers On Their Own Against Coronavirus As Supplies Dwindle | MSNBC
Speech Topics
Building Organizational Cultures of Excellence
Companies are increasingly aware of the value of diverse employee and leadership teams. However, consistent recruitment and retention of such a team requires an environment that upholds equity by design. Esther will present the case for innovating workplaces so that all employees feel valued and respected and able to operate at the top of their potential. She will walk organizations through applying rigor and solid frameworks for building a safe and positive environment for everyone.
Creating a Culture of Equity, Safety & Respect: Your Roadmap to Better Patient Outcomes
What it would look like in health care if there was no harassment, if pay, advancement and opportunity were equitable, and if all health care workers felt valued and respected? Building such an environment is the long-term answer to high-quality healthcare for all our patients, and a key element in finally addressing tenacious health disparities.
Racism as a Public Health Crisis
Organizations of all types are now declaring a commitment to anti-racism. Yet racism is embedded in nearly every aspect of the health and well-being of our population, affecting everything from risk for disease, disease prevalence, access to healthcare, and health outcomes of all kinds. Using her expertise in public health, emergency care, substance use disorders, and women's health, Esther highlights the challenges to health equity in the years to come.
Doctors at the Brink: The Toll of COVID 19 on Healthcare Workers
Prior to COVID-19, physicians were already working in a culture characterized by inequities, harassment, and crisis level burnout. COVID-19 has exposed these elements and the need for urgent change at every level across the profession. Dr. Esther Choo, emergency medicine physician, health policy researcher and a founding member of TIME’S UP Healthcare addresses the stressors, organizational cultural factors, and near-impossible expectations that can take a toll on the health and well being of healthcare professionals. Dr. Choo shares strategies for what can be done to improve organizational wellness and create a culture of respect to support the morale, energy, and resilience of their workforce in meaningful ways.