MISSION, Texas - Physicians can determine someone’s health more by their zip code than their genetic code.That was one of the comments AltaCair co-founder and principal Edwin F. Estevez made in an exclusive interview with the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service at the Accelerator 2023 RGV Health Equity Conference. The conference was co-hosted by Western Governors University and AltaCair and held at Mission Event Center. “We can determine someone’s health more likely by their zip code than their genetic code and that’s troubling in a community like ours,” Estevez said.Estevez was interviewed with three of the other organizers of the conference. The other three were Eric Weaver, executive director of the Institute for Advancing Health Value; Kimberly Kelly-Cortez, senior associate dean and director of programs at WGU’s Leavitt School of Health; and Keith Smith, senior vice president at WGU’s Leavitt School of Health.In their program notes, WGU and AltaCair explained they co-hosted the recent Accelerator 2023 RGV Health Equity Conference.“The research-backed program leverages the power of coopetition (collaboration with competitors, thought leadership, and action-oriented mindset to drive discussions around the socio-economic and environmental factors contributing to health disparities. “The investment coaches health systems, community-based organizations, accountable care organizations, workforce entities, and education alliances into a policy and advocacy group. “The vision is to think beyond geographical borders and develop a scalable model, with replicable results, to optimize the overall health equity structure of rural America.”The key themes for discussion at Accelerator 2023, which was held at the Mission Event Center, were:Access to healthcare and value-based careInnovative, high-quality health and nurse education programsNutrition securityPrevention careThe program pointed to US Census Bureau statistics which show 9.8 percent of people under the age of 65 do not have health insurance nationwide. But, the percentages for the four poorest counties in the RGV are much higher:Hidalgo County: 33.1 percentCameron County 29.9 percentStarr County 28.9 percentWillacy County 24.1 percentIn this, the second of a four-part audio series, the Guardian interviewed Weaver and Estevez:Go to www.riograndeguardian.com to read the latest border news stories and watch the latest news videos.

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