Efforts toward Equity
Even as we document the health effects of biases and discrimination in medicine, many individuals, groups, and organizations have been doing important, innovative work in their local health care environments to try to alleviate and eventually solve some of these problems. This series of brief case studies offers glimpses of various initiatives, each of which aims to address a particular manifestation of discrimination in medicine or health care. We hope they will spark ideas for efforts that other physicians and health care organizations can pursue.
The U.S. shortage of primary care physicians disproportionately affects underserved communities, and the inequities are compounded by the racial and linguistic diversity gaps between patients and doctors.
As climate change exacerbates existing health disparities, a new curriculum arms residents to provide climate-informed patient care, advance climate advocacy, and improve health system sustainability.
Recognizing that financially strapped students find their residency choices constrained by cost-of-living considerations, Mass General Brigham began supplementing the salaries of residents in need.
Affirm: The Rush Center for Gender, Sexuality, and Reproductive Health aims to improve access to culturally competent, relevant health care for the LGBTQ+ community throughout the Chicago metropolitan area.
More Efforts toward Equity
A gallery of portraits of prominent alumnae of color at Harvard Medical School provides inspiration for diverse current students and makes past sexist practices visible to all.
Like morbidity and mortality conferences, the HER series elucidates root causes of adverse events, but with a focus on inequities in care and an emphasis on building skills and generating solutions.
Rhode Island is collaborating with community health workers to expand their role in creating a better-integrated health and social care system and addressing root causes of health inequities.
Adolescents experiencing homelessness are particularly susceptible to period poverty (the inability to consistently access menstrual hygiene products), which negatively affects their education.
Covered California, the state’s health insurance marketplace, collects demographic data from applicants to inform its efforts to equitably increase health care coverage and reduce health disparities.
Recognizing that public health crises often hit hardest in underresourced communities, two academic medical centers have partnered with the Chicago Department of Public Health to provide rapid responses to outbreaks.
To reduce high levels of food insecurity among Black and Latinx residents of Chicago, three institutions partnered to create VeggieRx, a produce prescription program anchored by an urban agriculture facility.
A storytelling initiative launched by health care, academic, and community organizations produces narrative interventions to help heal and empower the people most deeply affected by gun violence in Boston.
Tufts’ STEM+M Connect program uses multitiered near-peer mentoring to help students navigate key academic transition points by building career awareness, a sense of belonging, and social networks.
In an effort to reduce racial disparities in prenatal health, a Yale-based transdisciplinary research team, clinicians, and payers developed a program to deliver prenatal care in a group format.
The Inclusive Dermatology Atlas from the University of New Mexico was designed to address disparities in diagnostic accuracy and thereby reduce disease burden, especially among patients of color.
Medical students and faculty at the University of Pittsburgh have been teaching middle-school students from marginalized racial and ethnic groups how to perform bystander CPR.
The Disability Ingetration Toolkit was developed at SUNY Upstate to help educators enhance medical students’ knowledge, skills, and cultural competencies regarding the care of people with disability.
Audio Interviews
Naming Medical Racism
Mentorship and Workforce Diversity
Addressing Perinatal Health Disparities