Member News

December 17, 2025

Alameda Health System (AHS) has been honored with the 2025 Quality Leaders Award (QLA) by the California Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems (CAPH) and the California Health Care Safety Net Institute (SNI).

AHS won in the equity category for inviting members from the Black community to co-design solutions intended to increase rates of breast cancer screening. Outcomes included deeper relationships, and a community-designed outreach campaign aimed at increasing breast cancer screening rates among Black women.

n the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, breast cancer screening rates among AHS patients fell below the 25th percentile nationally, significantly trailing national performance benchmarks. To address this critical gap, AHS convened a multidisciplinary workgroup that launched a variety of quality initiatives, successfully driving improvement in breast cancer screening rates above the 75th percentile over the last three years.

However, screening rates among Black patients remained persistently lower than the universal goal for all populations.

“We realized quickly that traditional approaches weren’t enough,” said Natalie Curtis, MD, medical director of value-based care. “To truly eliminate disparities, we had to rethink how we design care.”

Dr. Curtis and Jaime Martin, manager of value-based care, knew that they needed to design some population-specific approaches.

They partnered with Chief Mission Integration Officer U. Mini B. Swift, MD and Director of Care Experience Angela Ng, MD to create a pilot that would invite community members and patients closest to the problem to help co-design a solution. With funding from Pfizer, they formed the Black Patient Care Initiative (BPCI), whose members then brainstormed with the AHS Mammography Workgroup about how to increase AHS’s breast cancer screening rates.

“Guided by liberatory design, we built a team that prioritized relationships and capacity-building with patients and community members before jumping to solutions,” said Dr. Ng.

Drawing from their lived experiences, members of the BPCI thought an outreach campaign would help. Together they co-designed “Get Screened for Life,” a campaign that celebrated breast cancer screening as an empowering act of self-care. The campaign launched in early 2025 and included social media, signage, outreach materials, and mailings. The campaign was designed by patients, community members, and staff.

“We’ve moved from designing for patients, to designing with them,” said Dr. Swift. “Inspired by previous effective co-design in AHS, we’re now expanding and elevating this approach across our entire system.”

AHS CEO James Jackson said the award reflects AHS’s commitment to advancing equity through community partnership.

“This recognition belongs to our patients, our community partners, and the staff who listened deeply,” Jackson said. “The campaign shows what can happen when a health system doesn’t just speak to the community, but builds with the community.”

The award was presented to AHS on December 4 at CAPH and SNI’s annual conference. For over 20 years, the Quality Leaders Awards have highlighted the transformative work of California’s public health care systems in building healthier, more equitable communities.