Dr. Scott Page speaks at first PEACH-OHEI seminar 

by Michael J. Happy / PEACH Web Project Manager

The Program for Equity in Adolescent and Child Health (PEACH) and the Office of Health Equity and Inclusion (OHEI) held their inaugural joint seminar Sept. 24 at Mott Children's Hospital.

Distinguished University Professor of Complexity, Social Science, and Management Scott Page, Ph.D., spoke on Collective Intelligence as a Cultural Process: How to Leverage Cognitive Diversity While Managing Value Diversity with about 20 people in attendance and another 20 watching online.

Dr. Page emphasized throughout the seminar that the very best teams are diverse, able and moderately large.

"Diversity is harder to manage but also where excellence comes from," Dr. Page said during a lively presentation and discussion.

Page also spoke specifically about PEACH and how it takes diversity, bright people with different perspectives, to solve complex issues like child health equity. 

PEACH director Gary Freed, M.D., M.P.H., called Dr. Page's presentation "fascinating" and looks forward to other compelling speakers when the quarterly PEACH-OHEI seminars continue in January.

"Professor Page highlighted the importance of diversity of perspectives to well-functioning teams," Dr. Freed said. "It was a great message and will be very useful to many in the PEACH community.

"At PEACH we hope our seminar series will be a place to engage with ideas and with individuals that broaden our horizons in many domains."

PEACH, which launched in January 2023, is an innovative research and improvement program committed to improving equity in pediatric care and experience. The program is supported by 13 clinical departments/divisions in the School of Medicine, along with Mott Hospital, the Office for Health Equity and Inclusion, Poverty Solutions and several other units at the University of Michigan.