Jamie Bullus, M.P.H. | 2024 Emerging Leaders in Healthcare

Jamie Bullus, M.P.H.

I grew up in North Hanover, New Jersey, and attended the University of Oklahoma, where I earned a B.A. in journalism and mass communication. Graduating in 2009, I faced a challenging job market and decided to join AmeriCorps. I was placed at a federally qualified health center (FQHC) in Cleveland, working exclusively with uninsured patients.

I chose to stay at the FQHC, moving into a role managing the refugee health program, which involved initial health screenings for all refugees resettled in the county and the opportunity to walk side by side with them through our health and social systems. This revelatory experience solidified my purpose, leading me to pursue a master’s in public health from the University of Arizona and move into my current work focused on population health and health equity.

Please describe a turning point in your career — an event, a eureka moment, an encounter or a salient piece of advice from someone.

A pivotal moment in my career was when I realized that “the maps are the same.” To me, what is often missing in health equity discussions is the acknowledgment that disparities in outcomes stem from systemic inequities, which trace back to structural and systemic racism and discrimination. That’s why a heat map of elevated blood lead levels in children mirrors a map for COVID morbidities, diabetesprevalence, households in poverty, infant mortality and even high-speed internet availability. The maps are the same when inequities are ingrained in our systems.

What are your top two priorities as a leader in your organization and healthcare?

Most of us working in healthcare are well aware that the current system is broken, but many interventions place the burden of change on the patients or consumers. This raises a fundamental question: Is our goal to improve the system for the people or to mold people to fit the system? When I first began my journey in quality improvement, I was introduced to the teachings of W. Edwards Deming, which reshaped my perspective of viewing healthcare as a broken system to a system perfectly designed to get the results that it gets. At Optum Rx, we are integrating health equity into the business model, and it is my priority to not only challenge us to look critically at aspects of our current operations that contribute to health inequities but to identify opportunities to design our systems to achieve the results we want: an elimination of health and healthcare disparities for all members we serve.

If you could change one thing about U.S. healthcare, what would it be?

One thing I would change about U.S. healthcare is the approach to primary prevention. The current narrative encourages prevention in order to maintain health, but this assumes people are already healthy.For many living in America today, the concept of prevention is
a privilege.

Name a book or article that everyone working in healthcare should read.

“How We Do Harm: A Doctor Breaks Ranks About Being Sick in America” by Otis Webb Brawley, M.D. It spotlights the immoral financial drivers of treatment, or lack of treatment, and also the need to be critical and demand accountability within our fields and industry. I often use the first chapter, “Chief Complaint,” as a preread to introduce people to the real meaning of the social determinants of health.

How do you strike the right work-life balance?

Understanding that I am fortunate to even consider maintaining a work-life balance helps me remain mindful of the need to be present in both areas and to prioritize accordingly, often day by day. Having children has refined my purpose, my desire to “plant trees in shade that I’ll never sit in.” However, I will say work-life balance is a process, not an outcome, and like all processes, requires continuous improvement.

If you could have dinner with anyone, living or dead, who would it be and why?

My maternal grandmother passed away 13 years ago at the age of 86. Recently,I discovered a photo and a hint suggesting it was her high school photo. When I showed it to my mother, she told me it could not be her, as my grandmother never attended high school. This revelation surprised me. She was one of 12 children and born in the 1920s. I realized that the person I knew as my grandmother was only a tiny snippet of her full story, and I regret never asking more about her life.I believe everyone has had opportunities of greatness and courage that often go unnoticed simply because we do not ask, and I would like to hear her story.