Why Health Equity Matters to Heydoc Pediatrics: A Personal Story

By Jennifer Hernandez, MD

Dr. Jennifer Hernandez playing the "Attention Please" game, a educational role-playing game about ADHD, at a waiting room in a pediatric practice in Union City, New Jersey

Growing up in Union City and being fluent in both English and Spanish instilled in me a strong sense of responsibility and a genuine passion for advancing equitable healthcare education for diverse communities, particularly for patients and families whose primary language is not English.

I witnessed how language barriers and limited clinical time often prevented Spanish-speaking populations from comfortably asking questions or fully engaging with their physicians. As the Director of Health Equity, I contributed to the development and translation of our educational games to better serve multilingual communities. I am especially proud that, just a few blocks from where I grew up, we were able to install our HeyDoc console in a predominantly Spanish-speaking pediatric office.

To me, this represents a meaningful step toward improving health equity and empowering families and patients who may otherwise struggle to navigate healthcare in a predominantly English-speaking environment. I look forward to continuing this work by expanding our Spanish-language content and developing resources in additional languages to further improve health literacy and accessibility for underserved populations.

Dr. Jennifer Hernandez (left) with Dr. Sidney Chu, OLY posing with a Heydoc wallmount console