by Hazel Trice Edney,

<TriceEdneyWire.com> — Heart disease, cancer, and stroke are among the leading causes of death in America. In each case, African Americans are at least twice as likely to die than Whites according to private and public health experts.

1) Black adults are more than twice as likely to die of cardiovascular diseases, relative to White adults. American Indian individuals are 1.5 times as likely to be diagnosed with coronary heart disease, compared to White Americans, according to the American Heart Association.

2) Black people between the ages of 45 and 54 die of strokes three times more often than their White counterparts, according to the National Institutes of Health.

3) According to the American Cancer Society, African Americans have the highest death rate and shortest survival of any racial/ethnic group for most cancers.

These statistics, among a string of others, prove that racial health disparities remain consistent across the U.S. and that Black and other people of color, including Hispanic and AIAN (America Indian and Alaska Natives) fare worse than White Americans across a majority of health conditions. Therefore, private and public sectors must make concerted efforts to address this inequity head on if the gap is ever to close.

In this regard, healthcare innovators have an important role to play in making strides toward health equity. When medical advancements are made, communities of color must never be left behind in sharing the benefits.

When leading healthcare companies innovate, they in turn better serve patients’ needs. However, there are challenges that can curb a company’s ability to innovate, including outsiders that prioritize themselves over improving healthcare.

Take what’s happening to the health technology company, Masimo, for example. Over the last three decades, the company went from a startup to one of the country’s largest suppliers of medical technology, including pulse oximeters. The company improved the way clinicians measure patients’ blood oxygen levels and developed a technology that significantly mitigates racial bias from their health monitors, quelling an issue that has long plagued Black and minority communities.

However, Masimo’s ability to continue innovating for patients is in jeopardy. An activist hedge fund, Politan Capital Management, is attempting to take complete control of Masimo’s board of directors. Quentin Koffey, who heads the fund, aims to win two additional seats that are up for election in the company’s annual meeting, which would result in Politan having a controlling majority that determines all board decisions.

If Politan snags control of the board, Masimo will be led by a three-year-old hedge fund helmed by a vulture investor with no expertise or experience in the med-tech field. Politan has provided very limited information about its transition or leadership plans, leaving one to wonder how Masimo would fare in the months and years ahead. Masimo’s CEO and founder, Joe Kiani, says he will leave the company if booted from the board, and the COO and hundreds of engineers and managers said they would follow him out the door.

It’s hard to imagine how patients will benefit from any future innovations developed by Masimo if the company loses its innovative leadership and wider team.

Politan’s ‘activism’ detracts from Masimo’s main goal of providing best in class med-tech products. This does not come as a surprise. A BCG analysis found that most companies lose between four percent and 25% of total shareholder return within a year of an activist attack.

Politan has made itself a major impediment to Masimo’s efforts to focus on what it should be doing best, which is innovating. A med-tech company should be primarily focused on creating new products to best serve patients, not a distraction from an activist hedge fund.

The rise in organizations and companies (public and private) speaking out about and attempting to address disparities is encouraging.

“The digital transformation in health care has a lot of opportunities to improve access and quality of care. However, in reality, not all individuals and communities are benefiting equally from these innovations,” says a study by NIH, the National Institute of Health.

The best way for them to effect change is to put forth innovations in the healthcare field that improve outcomes for all patients, including those that are historically underserved and disparately impacted. Med-tech companies must be encouraged to innovate free from outside nuisances that detract from that mission.