Getting started
with violet

Violet serves as both a cultural competence analytics and education platform for health plans and provider organizations, including cultural competence benchmarking and an on-demand CE/CME resource for health care providers and other staff. We deliver insights into the diversity and inclusivity of networks and provider organizations, focusing on BIPOC, LGBQ, and TGNC communities, coupled with aggregated SOGI & REaL data. Violet is the first in the industry to offer dynamic, real-time measurement of provider cultural competence through our proprietary, research-backed benchmarking framework.

Violet Benchmarks are a standardized measure for assessing provider cultural competence. At Violet, we’ve adopted the idea that cultural competence is a skill that can be measured, improved, and recognized in every provider – much like other clinical skills. We believe that addressing inequities requires moving beyond ‘check the box’ claims of inclusivity. That’s why when providers join Violet, they complete a detailed profile covering their clinical experience, education, lived experiences, confidence levels, and the communities they wish to connect with more often. Providers are then assigned a Benchmark level—either no Benchmark, Awareness, Proficiency, or Excellence—for each community (BIPOC, LGBQ, TGNC). This comprehensive approach lays the groundwork for strengthening the provider-patient relationship, regardless of shared cultural backgrounds or identities.

Our extensive research, conducted in collaboration with partnering provider organizations and the Eidos LGBTQ+ Health Initiative at the University of Pennsylvania, revealed that providers who achieved an Awareness Benchmark in at least one community observe several key improvements:

• Increased completion rates for wellness visits
• Higher patient adherence to scheduled appointments
• More frequent depression screenings and follow-up care
• Higher patient retention rates after one month of treatment
• Improved clinical outcomes, evidenced by reduced GAD-7/PHQ-9 scores and higher therapeutic alliance scores

This research underscores how cultural competence translates into tangible benefits in patient care and outcomes.

Health care organizations use Benchmarks for many purposes including:

• Highlighting the organization’s diversity and cultural competence as a competitive edge in RFPs in order to win contracts or achieve NCQAs Health Equity Accreditation
• Building better relationships with patients/members with transparency into cultural competencies of providers whether in directories for identity-centered care or in marketing materials
• Identifying gaps in equitable care access to guide future programs, partnerships, and expansion efforts
• Supporting a shift toward value-based care with enhanced reimbursements for organizations that meet Violet’s verified inclusive organization criteria

Organizations and providers alike can view Benchmarks as a roadmap for skill development through Violet’s education, which is specifically tailored to address the needs of BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ communities.

Violet simplifies the process by gathering provider SOGI and REaL data during the benchmarking process. We also equip organizations with the cultural competence and implicit bias training needed to fulfill the organizational readiness requirements. For a more detailed breakdown of how we assist in meeting each NCQA standard, click here.

When you sign in to your account, you’ll land on your homepage. From there you can view all education on the platform, navigate to your own personal profile, and access the ‘My organization’ dashboard that is available exclusively to administrators.

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Overview

Here you’ll see high level stats about your organization. This includes:

• Total users 
• Onboarded users (Clinical staff who have completed their profiles in order to be benchmarked)
• Verified Inclusive Organization status
• Education completion stats and most frequented collections
• List of all staff within your organization

Cultural competencies

On this tab, you’ll be able to view all providers within your organization, their language proficiencies, and the Benchmarks they’ve received for each community (No Benchmark achieved, Awareness, Proficiency, or Excellence).

Demographics

Violet aggregates all provider data related to sexual orientation, gender identity, race, and ethnicity to ensure privacy, while still offering organizations valuable insights into the diversity of their workforce.

Education engagement

Keep track of education progress at your organization.

• Search for individual users to view completed courses or collections.
• Filter by course or collection to see which providers within your organization have completed them.
• Use community filters to evaluate the upskilling efforts aimed at enhancing culturally responsive care for specific communities.
• Switch between courses and collections easily. Violet’s e-learning curriculum is structured into collections, each typically comprising four individual 15-minute courses.

Assignments

On the Assignments tab, you’ll see completion records for any courses or collections that your organization has assigned to providers. To assign specific education to your team, please contact support@joinviolet.com.

If you're adding your team to Violet’s platform for the first time:

• Schedule a 15 minute call with us [optional but recommended].
• Send a roster file over to support@joinviolet.com. Please use this template.
• Users will receive invites within 48 hours.

If you already have an admin account already but need to add or remove members:

Send a list of users to add or remove to support@joinviolet.com.

Violet Benchmarks are dynamic, real-time records that reflect a provider's evolving skill set. Providers can grow their Benchmarks by upskilling through Violet’s courses, attending relevant conferences, completing CE/CME or other training programs, logging any additional clinical work or development initiatives, or even developing a stronger confidence and commitment to serving specific communities. While education completed on Violet’s platform updates automatically, we encourage providers to manually add any relevant experiences or training that strengthen their ability to deliver inclusive care to BIPOC, TGNC, and LGBQ communities.

We send out a reminder to providers to update their profile every 6 months.

Violet publishes hour-long educational collections, made up of 15 minute courses. Each collection typically follows a standard outline; the background and context, the application, demonstration (usually accompanied by an audio diary or case vignette), and the takeaway. For more guided, structured learning, we offer learning pathways, made up of multiple collections that progress from foundational SDoH concepts to more advanced clinical topics.

Violet is certified to offer prescribed credit from the following organizations:

• American Medical Association (AMA)
• National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC)
• New York State Department of Education for psychology, mental health counseling, and social work (NYSED)
• American Academy of PAs (AAPA)
• American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC)
• Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE)
• Commission on Dietetic Registration (CDR)
• American Psychological Association (APA)
• Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB)
• American Dental Association's Continuing Education Recognition Program (ADA CERP).

Each eligible Violet collection is equal to one CE/CME credit hour. Providers can download their completion certificates directly from the platform after answering a few short survey questions. Additionally, providers can easily filter educational content by the relevant accrediting body.

We prioritize community involvement.

Collaborating directly with the communities we aim to serve is crucial to the development of our curriculum. Our educators and clinical review board are a diverse team who blend their clinical knowledge with personal experiences to deliver research-based, up-to-date guidance.

Ongoing engagement builds confidence.

Following training with Violet, 85% of partnering providers report increased confidence in working with patients of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds, gender identities, and sexual orientations.

It facilitates behavior change.

Our independent research shows that providers upskilling with Violet exhibited the following:

• 20% higher depression screening rates per clinician for patient population
• 16% boost in hypertension control per clinician for patient population
• .4% improvement in diabetes management per clinician for patient population.

We support multiple learning styles across various topics.

We offer a range of learning modalities, including video, audio diaries, case vignettes, and live webinars covering health equity-related topics ranging from perinatal depression and demystifying queer sex to the racist origins of BMI as a measure of body health.

We don’t prescribe a fixed number of educational collections to achieve cultural awareness, proficiency, or excellence. Doing so would reduce the effort to a box-checking exercise, which we aim to avoid. Instead, we view Violet’s education as one lever in an ongoing journey toward cultural competence. We encourage providers to thoroughly complete their profiles and regularly update them with any relevant studies or work outside of Violet to accurately reflect their ongoing efforts and growth.

That said, providers without a Benchmark in a specific community can often achieve an Awareness Benchmark by completing relevant educational collections on Violet’s platform. We’ve made it easy to filter education by community, enabling providers to focus their learning efforts where it makes the most sense.