Patient-provider racial/ethnic concordance (i.e., physician and patient identify as the same race/ethnicity) has emerged as one key suggestion for mitigating healthcare disparities. Past research has underlined its benefits, including improved infant mortality and more appropriate prescription regimens. However, the sum of the evidence remains unclear and many facets of the patient-provider relationship have yet to… Read More »
Representation matters to health. Improving pathways into health care and public health is an important way to increase workforce diversity. This is a crucial step in reducing health disparities and advancing health equity in the U.S. Black, Latinx, and American Indian and Alaska Native communities face higher rates of chronic and life-threatening health conditions. Yet… Read More »
Over the past 25 years, significant strides have been made in shifting services for people with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease to home and community settings. Home and community-based services (HCBS) enable people with various forms of dementia to receive care in a familiar setting while promoting their independence, well-being, and overall quality of life. As… Read More »
Racial justice reframing is the process of shifting our attention from individual choices to the many structural and societal factors that contribute to health inequities. This framing allows us to picture a world where values of equity, shared responsibility, and community care are paramount. We see a world where everyone – regardless of their identities… Read More »
To address calls for improving health equity, organizations could consider using CLAS Standards to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). In recent years, health organization leaders have prioritized the need to address systemic inequities. A 2021 survey of health care organizations identified health equity as a top priority [pdf]. This focus has grown since the… Read More »
In this episode of our podcast series, Jess Williams discusses COVID-19 case and hospitalizations with Tami Gurley, an Associate Professor at the University of Kansas Medical Center. Jess also recaps the blog posts published in April and previews some articles published in the May issue of Medical Care. Listen here or wherever you get your fine audio content.… Read More »
Part 1 of this two-part series laid out arguments for and shortcomings of imputing race/ethnicity from the perspective of health equity. In this post, we’ll talk about gaps in the evidence and a few alternatives to imputation, including approaches involving population-level and neighborhood-level data. Imputation is a common solution to deal with “the missing-data problem.”… Read More »
In Part 1 of this two-part series (originally published Aug. 19, 2021), we lay out arguments for and shortcomings of imputing race/ethnicity from the perspective of health equity. In Part 2, we’ll talk about evidence gaps and research needed, as well as a few alternative approaches. The Biden administration is focusing on health equity and… Read More »
The US maternal mortality rate is higher than it was a quarter of a century ago. For every one person that dies, another 65 almost die. We do not adequately care for mothers and mothers-to-be. Not only that, but as providers, we inadvertently (and at times overtly) inflict obstetric violence, through both individual actions and our… Read More »
The pandemic has familiarized us all with the phrase “medical mistrust,” often framing those who have it as being irrational or uninformed. Oft ignored is the biomedical community’s long legacy of broken trust. Addressing cancer-related inequities will require health professionals to make concerted efforts to repair that broken trust. Cancer and Broken Trust People of… Read More »
In a new Medical Care article published ahead of print, Cheryl R. Clark, MD, ScD, and colleagues, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard, provide pre-ACA implementation estimates of income-based disparities in delayed or forgone care due to cost by race/ethnicity, by state-level Medicaid expansion status. Reforms can be unevenly implemented even if they address the primary causes of… Read More »
Using 2003-2009 Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) hospital discharge data from 6 geographically and demographically diverse states, Mukamel and colleagues found that African Americans continue to experience poorer quality primary care, especially for chronic conditions.