It was a privilege for the Twig Health team to participate last week in SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University Medical Center’s annual Safety and Quality Fair and to reflect on what has been an extraordinary collaboration.

One comment from Maja Castillo MD, MHA of Healthfirst captured the spirit of the event: “We should treat each patient as if this were our mother.”

What stood out most throughout the event was the strength of the partnership. This has never been just a vendor relationship. It has been a true collaboration between SUNY Downstate, Healthfirst, and Twig Health, grounded in a shared commitment to delivering better care and better service for historically underserved patients.

Together, we helped build a new kind of retail-inspired front desk for value-based care: a high-touch concierge service powered by Twig nurses and medical assistants, copiloted by AI. This model has helped empower thousands of patients, simplify scheduling and interventions, reduce administrative burden on clinical teams, and support more efficient value-based operations.

Most importantly, this work contributed to a remarkable outcome: a full 1-star upgrade in both Medicaid and Medicare. That is meaningful progress for the medical center, for its teams, and most of all for the patients and communities it serves.

We are deeply grateful to Mohamed Nakeshbandi, MD, MHA, FACP and the exceptional leadership team at SUNY Downstate. This is only the beginning. We are excited about the momentum ahead, with additional joint projects already underway and more to be announced soon.