Trustee Francis Vincent: Dedicated to Better Health Outcomes
Wheeler’s Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees, Francis Vincent, has a unique vantage point for his role, and it’s focused his belief that addressing disparities are key to better health outcomes.
The son of a physician, Vincent was born in Scotland and raised in both Nigeria and Connecticut. Today, as a Senior Principal, Strategic Planning, at Cigna, he helps the insurer with a dual focus to improve health outcomes and make care more affordable for employers and their employees.
“I’ve always had an interest in health care,” he says. “From dinnertime, when my father would talk about the importance of helping people, to seeing data at Cigna about the inextricable link between physical and mental health, the more I learned, the more I saw how we can improve care.”
His commitment to Wheeler and its mission stems from that passion.
“We talk about integrated health care, and that’s been a profound shift, where primary care and behavioral health providers can screen and pass off to each other effortlessly,” he says. “But where I think Wheeler is a bit of a home run is understanding that this alone may not create better outcomes without touching on the factors that impact health even more, like access to healthy food, or transportation.”
“Whole-person care is not just everyone under one roof, but that we have a view of, and appreciation for, all the other factors that influence wellness. I think Wheeler is unique in the state in that regard.”
Vincent believes that the best care addresses both the hard outcome data and the larger, broad context of how it is provided.
“From a care standpoint, it should come back to ‘what does the data show?’ What will we do to see improvements in both the health outcomes, but also the cost of and access to care, because we know that people will make care decisions in part based on that. And then, not only how can we best use the data to improve outcomes, but how can we articulate the impact we’re having on real, significant challenges in the context of the social determinants of health?”
He believes effective outreach to the populations we’re serving, and connecting to other organizations in the community, are key to growing Wheeler’s impact.
“I’m active in my church in Hartford, and I see that the work we’re doing there—providing meals and shelter—and the work that’s being done across the state, linking directly to what we do for the people Wheeler serves every day.”
Vincent is also the chair of the board’s development committee, and sees a similar need to effectively communicate with our philanthropic investors.
“We have tremendous potential. We need to focus on getting our story out to the people who support us. We need everyone to be aware of how they’re helping us impact the communities we serve, and improve the life of every patient.”
