Staten Island Performing Provider System/Social Care Network, in partnership with Staten Island University Hospital, hosted its sixth annual Health Summit at the St. George Theatre in Staten Island. This year’s summit focused on maternal health, with discussions highlighting disparities, emerging trends, and ongoing challenges, as well as the innovative programs being implemented to address them.
Todd Rogow, President and CEO of Healthix, shared his perspective on the unique role a health information exchange (HIE) can play in improving maternal health outcomes, emphasizing its ability to connect data, enhance care coordination, and support more informed, equitable care delivery.
Good afternoon, and thank you for coming today to the Annual Healthcare Summit hosted by Staten Island University Hospital, in collaboration with the Staten Island PPS.
We are here today for a purpose that is both personal and urgent. We are here because, in one of the wealthiest cities on earth, where some of the finest hospitals in the world operate within minutes of one another—mothers are dying. Babies are dying. And we know, with painful precision, that environmental conditions and zip code predict those deaths more reliably than almost any clinical variable.
We also know that affordable healthcare in the five boroughs starts with these parents and babies. Because our data makes it crystal clear: When we fail to provide the care these families need, we unleash a wave of preventable costs that every New Yorker and every stakeholder across our system must absorb.
Today, Healthix is doing something about that. I am proud to announce the launch of the Maternal & Infant Health Equity Collaborative of Staten Island.
Before we talk about what we are building, I want to ground us on what is actually happening—right here, in this borough—because urgency requires evidence, and the evidence is damning. Just last week, the Staten Island Advance published a report that should stop every person in this room cold.
In 2022, Black, non-Hispanic women accounted for 42.4% of all pregnancy-associated deaths, despite representing only 17.4% of live births. By contrast, White, non-Hispanic women made up 16.7% of deaths compared to 36% of live births.
According to a 2025 NYC Department of Health report, Staten Island recorded a pregnancy-associated mortality rate of 72.2 per 100,000 live births from 2018 to 2022—the second highest rate of any borough in New York City, trailing only the Bronx. And across New York City, more than 8 in 10 pregnancy-associated deaths have been determined to have had some chance of being prevented.
The disparities within Staten Island mirror those we see across the state and the nation. We have to remember that they’re not inevitable. This is so much more than a moral tragedy. We must understand them for what they are: a shadow tax on our entire system. Because when parents anywhere don’t get the care they need, hospital bills and insurance premiums skyrocket everywhere.
Let me tell you what we are committed to doing—and why. The Maternal & Infant Health Equity Collaborative, powered by Healthix, is committed to advancing healthier outcomes for mothers and infants by bringing together community-based organizations, healthcare providers, doulas, care managers, and public leaders around shared, meaningful data.
Through timely insights on health risks, environmental factors, and social determinants of health, we aim to illuminate the root causes of inequities—and support partners in designing informed, coordinated, and community-centered interventions that can make care more affordable across the city.
Our vision is straightforward: every person—before and after birth—regardless of race, income, or neighborhood, has an equal opportunity to thrive. That is not a slogan. That is a standard. We will hold ourselves accountable with data, with transparency, and with continuous learning across every partner in this room.
So, what does that look like in practice? Healthix serves tens of millions of patients across the downstate region of New York. Every day, we exchange clinical messages connecting healthcare organizations across the city. We know who is getting care—and more importantly, we know who is not.
It’s time to bring this historically hidden data—and the intelligence it gives us—out of the dark. That intelligence is the foundation of this Collaborative. We have organized our work around five strategic commitments:
You might ask: Why an HIE? Why Healthix? Because no one knows Staten Island’s families like Healthix.
In our city, the single biggest barrier to closing these gaps is fragmentation. A patient may deliver at one hospital, follow up at a clinic, receive behavioral health services elsewhere, and interact with a community organization—and none of those entities have a complete picture of the patient’s journey.
Healthix exists to break down those silos. We are not a provider. We are not a payer. We are a trusted, independent infrastructure, and that neutrality gives us a unique ability to convene and to connect.
I want to close with something simple and something honest. We use the word “equity” a great deal in healthcare. Sometimes it becomes so familiar it loses its weight. So let me be direct: equity, in this context, means that a pregnant Black person on the North Shore of Staten Island should have the same chance of surviving their pregnancy and bringing home a healthy child as anyone else in this city.
That is not where we are today. But it is exactly where we are going, and we have a plan, partners, and the data infrastructure to get there.
But I want to be clear about what kind of effort this is. This is not a sprint. There is no finish-line tape we break through in six months and declare victory. What we are launching today is a relay race. In a relay, no single runner wins alone. You carry the baton as far and as fast as you can, and then you make a clean handoff to the next partner, trusting that they will carry it further.
The race is won by the quality of those handoffs. By the trust between runners. By the commitment of every member of the team to not drop the baton, especially when the patient passing through their hands is most vulnerable. Every handoff matters. Every gap between runners is a place where a family can fall through. Our job, together, is to close those gaps and keep the baton moving.
To our partners in this room—the clinicians, community organizations, doulas, public health leaders, and policymakers—we are asking you to run your leg of this race with everything you have. Share your data. Trust your teammates. Show up for the families who have not historically been able to count on systems like ours to pass the baton cleanly.
We are running this race because we know a simple truth: affordable healthcare in the five boroughs starts with Staten Island’s parents. Everyone who grabs the baton will save lives and help fuel a high-powered economic engine for our community.
That race starts today, right here, on Staten Island! To this community: Healthix sees you and hears you. We are in this relay with you. And we are not leaving.
