Get Involved

Healthcare centers, practices, hospitals, and clinics are foundational to Mil Familias. They play a major role in referring eligible patients to Mil Familias and they are also an important site of data collection. If you are involved in health care, you or your organization can partner with Mil Familias on two levels.

Level 1: Refer potential participants. The simplest form of engagement is to refer eligible patients to Mil Familias (contact us to learn more about eligibility). Referred patients are then connected to a local Promotora and guided through the Mil Familias program.

Level 2: Become an allied health care center. Instead of referring patients to Mil Familias, your health care center can become part of Mil Familias. Your eligible patients can then participate in Mil Familias in the comfort of their medical home. All or some Mil Familias activities can take place at your site including administering questionnaires, blood draws, running lab tests, providing clinical visits, etc. Depending on your resources, our staff will work with you to find the best and most efficient partnership strategy.

Return on Investment:

• Opportunity to participate in groundbreaking research.
• Means of complying with state and federal requirements (e.g., ACA-related IRS requirements of community benefit work).
• Work toward the Triple Aim of quality care, patient experience, and reduced cost.
• Professional development and employment opportunities for community health workers, who are so critical to our local healthcare system.

Education providers, such as school districts, colleges, and schools can contribute to Mil Familias by supporting recruitment and/or providing in-kind services and resources. Recruitment efforts can be supported by referring participants to Mil Familias (students, families, and employees may all be eligible); hosting recruitment events; and/or inviting Mil Familias ambassadors to campuses or school functions. Education providers may also offer community services or resources which can be included in the “Mil Familias resource guide” available to participants. In-kind resources may also support Mil Familias, including community venues for hosting Mil Familias events or visits, language interpreters for visits, or training curriculum to support student interns.

Return on Investment:

• Annual physical exam and lab tests are cost free for Mil Familias participants.
• Decreases in diabetes and the burden of diabetes caregiving increases student readiness to learn and academic success, and it helps those who care for and educate them (parents, teachers, aides), as well.

Advocacy groups working in social justice, health equity, civil rights, immigrant rights, healthcare rights, environmental justice, etc. can play a key role in highlighting the undue burden of diabetes on Latino families, as well as the disproportionate engagement of Latinos in diabetes research. These groups can use their weight to influence public opinion and/or policy to raise awareness of both the problem of diabetes and the Mil Familias solution.

Return on Investment:

• Diabetes education, research, and care that are consistent with advocate values, such that they are community-based, culturally-congruent, inclusive, and respectful.
• Connections between community groups and non-traditional partners in health care and research.

Policymakers can easily and effectively encourage Latino families to participate in Mil Familias. Policymakers will be needed to translate Mil Familias results into evidence-informed policies and programs that affect the likelihood of acquiring diabetes, the severity of diabetes, and the receipt of timely and effective care and treatment.

Return on Investment:

• Evidence from the Latino population translated into effective decisions and actions.
• Increase inclusivity for all community members to equitable access to and participation in 21st century healthcare.
• Professional development and employment opportunities for community health workers, who play a paramount role in connecting people to vital services and helping to address the economic, social, environmental, and political rights of underserved and disenfranchised individuals.
• Increased visibility to constituents as an advocate for health, social and economic security, evidence-based research, and community partnerships.

Payers can augment Mil Familias work by adding their local claims data related to health diagnoses and care utilization to create a novel “big data” set for Latino families.

Return on Investment:

• Unique actuarial analytics to better understand why Latinos have such an excess of diabetes and cardiovascular disease, and the clinical and health economic burdens compared to the background population, and how to plan prospective intervention studies and deliver innovative healthcare delivery to reduce these burdens.
• Access to a novel big data set containing over 100 variables from 1,000 local Latino families covering the 5 major determinants of human health (genetics, biology, behavior, psychology and environment).
• Reduction in the costs due to unscheduled and delayed care visits, thanks to improved diabetes prevention, early diagnosis, and treatment.
• Support for payer mission to improve quality, enhance patient experience, and reduce costs of diabetes care.

Pharmaceutical companies can provide support to operationalize Mil Familias research and innovation.

Return on Investment:

• Opportunity to address the growing unmet needs affecting the global diabetes community.
• Means to improving access to the most modern existing and future therapies for diabetes, and in doing so, overcoming traditional and nontraditional socio-economic barriers to diabetes care.

Technology stakeholders can provide resources and expertise to make Mil Familias a technology-based reality. Technology companies can also validate their innovative devices to improve health for people living with diabetes and at risk of the condition.

Return on Investment:

• Access to a novel big data set containing over 100 variables from 1,000 local Latino families covering the 5 major determinants of human health (genetics, biology, behavior, psychology and environment).
• Ability to ask research questions of a unique 10-year observational cohort of 1,000 Latino families, allowing for creative analyses of the multiple determinants of human health and their influences for cardio-metabolic risk among Latino families.
• Opportunity to apply Mil Familias quantified self, big data, and understanding of societal influences to identify, develop, and validate novel interventions that benefit targeted/impacted communities and are sustainable, scalable, and measurable.

Researchers can contribute their expertise to developing Mil Familias data collection methods and instruments, analyzing and interpreting results, and applying results to address diabetes in the Latino population as well as to solve other scientific, academic, social, and commercial questions.

Return on Investment:

• Access to a novel big data set containing over 100 variables from 1,000 local Latino families covering the 5 major determinants of human health (genetics, biology, behavior, psychology and environment).
• Ability to ask research questions of a unique 10-year observational cohort of 1,000 Latino families, allowing for creative analyses of the multiple determinants of human health and their influences for cardio-metabolic risk among Latino families.
• Unique actuarial analytics to better understand why Latinos have such an excess of diabetes and cardiovascular disease, the clinical and health economic burdens as well as risk for this group compared to the background population, and how to strategically plan prospective intervention studies and innovative healthcare delivery approaches to reduce these burdens.
• Opportunity to apply Mil Familias lessons to identify and develop novel interventions that benefit targeted/impacted communities and are sustainable, scalable, and measurable, and defining appropriate metrics of success for the target population of Latino families.

Businesses play a crucial role in providing in-kind resources to Mil Familias. Businesses are recruitment sites, both among employees and clientele who live with diabetes. Businesses can also contribute material resources and services like translation, interpretation, transportation, and innovative technology development.

Return on Investment:

• Access to data characterizing the growing Latino population (soon to be the majority in the U.S.) and the growing health consumer industry.
• Direct referral point for employees (e.g. via wellness program) and clients living with diabetes.
• Annual physical exam and lab tests cost free to Mil Familias participants (clients and/or employees), many of whom have income that limits their access to care.
• Investment in the local community, leading to perception of the business as caring about their employees, local customers and clients.