2022 Power Players in Health Care: Dr. Wendy Wilcox, Chief Women’s Health Officer, NYC Health + Hospitals

In our second conversation with an honoree form our 2022 Power Players in Health Care list published on 10/31, we spoke with Dr. Wendy Wilcox, Chief Women’s Health Officer for NYC Health + Hospitals about maternal fatality, New York’s maternal fatality rates and efforts to reduce them, as well as the disparity between maternal deaths of Black and White women.

Dr. Wilcox dives into the history and construction of health care system, speaking on health care disparities and how disparities often coincide with areas with a higher number of Black and Brown individuals. She provides insight into New York’s maternal fatality rate and how New York’s ranking has risen from 48th to 28th in the entire country over the past years. Dr. Wilcox continues this discussion by detailing some of the steps that legislators are taking to continue this rise in ranking and to help decrease maternal fatality rates as well as support women’s health as whole throughout New York.