Wednesday 11 March 2026 | 14:30-15:15
Stream: Populations
Session format: Presentation
Chair: Lucy Robin ABC Parents; UK

Minority and vulnerable populations often face health inequities due to cultural, social, or systemic barriers. This session presents two initiatives demonstrating how culturally competent, value-driven approaches can improve outcomes for diverse groups. In Israel, the Ministry of Health co-designed programs with Ultra-Orthodox community leaders, deploying mobile clinics and culturally adapted health promotion to address disparities across eight priority areas. In London, Oxleas NHS applied Value-Based Healthcare principles to scale a community frailty service, improving outcomes, efficiency, and patient experience while reducing costs. Both cases highlight the importance of co-production with those with lived experience, innovative delivery models, and continuous measurement. Participants will gain insights into practical strategies for advancing equity, value, and responsiveness in minority or high-need populations.

Part 1: Israel's First Strategic Plan for Ultra-Orthodox Community Health Equity

This presentation showcases Israel's groundbreaking strategic initiative to address health disparities in the Ultra-Orthodox community, a closed religious minority representing 13.9% of Israel's population (1.39 million people). This insular community maintains distinct cultural practices, religious observances, and social structures that create unique barriers in healthcare. Significant health gaps requiring culturally competent interventions across eight priority areas: physical activity, nutrition access, diabetes management, cancer screening, vaccination coverage, mental health services, child safety, dental health, and smoking cessation.

Our inter-ministerial collaboration developed culturally adapted health programs co-designed with community leaders, utilizing innovative outreach strategies including Israel's first mobile mother and child health clinic and health promotion programs across 19 community centers in Ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods. With over 170,000 participants since October 2024, preliminary results demonstrate high engagement rates, improved health awareness, increased vaccination coverage, enhanced screening participation, and positive lifestyle changes.

This case study illustrates how cultural competence transforms health outcomes in closed religious minority communities, offering replicable strategies for addressing health equity in other minority populations globally through community partnership and culturally sensitive program design.

After this session, participants will be able to:
 

• Identify cultural barriers to healthcare access in closed communities and develop culturally competent assessment strategies for health disparities
• Design community-centered interventions that leverage religious leadership and cultural values to improve health outcomes and program acceptance
• Implement innovative outreach models including mobile health services and community-based programming that overcome traditional access barriers
• Evaluate program effectiveness using both quantitative health metrics and qualitative community engagement indicators to measure sustainable impact

Hanni Schroeder Israel Ministry of Health; Israel 

Part 2: Value-based healthcare in action: delivering for our community frailty population 

Discover how value-based healthcare principles are enabling the transformation of care for the frailty population in Greenwich, London. This dynamic session explores the real-world application of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s Value Management methodology—a powerful approach that builds upon the Model for Improvement with lean accounting principles to improve outcomes, efficiency, quality, and safety whilst reducing cost. Join us as we share practical tools, lessons learned, and insights from applying this methodology beyond acute settings. Whether you're new to Value Management or looking to expand its use in your setting, this session offers inspiration and actionable takeaways to elevate care for frailty populations in the community. 
After this session, participants will be able to:

• Understand and apply methods that drive quality improvement while maintaining or reducing costs.
• Incorporate tools to manage financial, performance, and capacity measures.
• Explore how to adaptively apply the approach in different settings.

Nitish Lakhman Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust; UK