When the dust settles on this year, this election, this pandemic, one of the many truths that will knell clear is that our healthcare system desperately demands reform. Never before has the interdependence of health, social privilege, and economic security been so grossly on display. We need a wholesale reimagination of how we define, deliver, and pay for care. 

Fortuitously, we have a model for what this might look like. And it comes in the form of Cityblock Health, a growing public health startup that integrates primary care, behavioral care, and social services to deliver high-quality care to low-income communities.When the pandemic struck, it became clear that the racial and economic disparities long festering in our country would be splayed viciously open, and Cityblock’s patients would bear their disproportionate toll. 

Today, we talk with Cityblock’s cofounder and Chief Health Officer, Dr. Toyin Ajayi, about how the company mobilized to meet this need, and why this moment only magnifies the urgency and value of its model. Cityblock spun out from Alphabet’s Sidewalk Labs in October 2017 with a mission to treat, at scale, the root causes of poor health in underserved urban populations. It has since expanded beyond New York to Connecticut, Massachusetts, North Carolina, and Washington, D.C. 

For more information, check out:

• Cityblock’s blog
• Toyin’s TEDMED talk

And listen to more Civic Rx episodes at civic-rx.org.