Last year, shortly after the 2023 Health Datapalooza, the AcademyHealth community mourned with our friends and colleagues the passing of Casey Quinlan, a first-rate advocate, rabble rouser, and an unflappable straight talker who helped blaze the trail for a generation of activated patients and directly contributed to the development and sustained commitment of AcademyHealth’s patient engagement and collaboration efforts.
It is only fitting, therefore, that as we prepare for the 2024 Health Datapalooza, we are remembering and celebrating Casey by renaming the Health Datapalooza patient scholarship in her honor. Applications are now open for the 2024 Casey Quinlan Scholarship for Patients and Patient Advocates.
The Casey Quinlan Scholarships support patient participation and engagement at the Health Datapalooza, to be held this year on September 16-17, 2024 in Washington, D.C. Scholarships include support for registration, travel, and accommodation for qualifying applicants. A limited number of registration-only scholarships will also be available. Interested patients and patient advocates can review the eligibility criteria and apply via our website.
In renaming the scholarship in Casey’s honor, AcademyHealth recognizes her extraordinary contributions to advancing health and health care, and her pivotal role in establishing patient leadership as an expectation of the Health Datapalooza.
Casey was one of the first patients to be regularly engaged with AcademyHealth. She helped catalyze our adoption of the initial Patients Included standards, and then held us accountable as we found our way forward in implementing them. Casey also stepped forward to represent patient perspectives officially as a member of the Health Datapalooza planning committee, as a speaker on the main stage, and through active engagement as a program participant. Unofficially, and in true Casey fashion, she used her well-earned access to offer direct feedback on most of our other activities, too. She did so with characteristic directness, reminding us that the valuable contributions of patient advisors were worth more than a “warm handshake and a cold bagel.”
But her influence was not limited to events and convenings. As a trusted advisor, Casey helped inform the criteria for our initial patient scholarship and membership offerings, and became one of our first official members in the “patient” category once it was launched.
With this scholarship in her name, AcademyHealth strives to continue meeting her high standards, and to welcome new and vital voices to our collective efforts to advance the production and use of evidence to improve health and health care.
Apply for the scholarship by Monday, July 29 at 5pm ET here.