How to improve health equity

How to improve health equity

Written by Lauren Gravitz

This article is part of ‘.Innovation: Solutions for health equity”, an editorially independent special report produced with financial support from. Takeda Pharmaceutical Company.

TThe country in which a person is born has a lifelong impact on their health. So do the areas in which they live, the color of their skin, their income, and their level of social support. That’s unfair. After centuries of persistent health disparities, researchers, advocates, clinicians, and public health experts are finding ways to improve health for all.

New advances may exaggerate inequalities before they reduce them. But there are reasons for optimism, as journalist Anil Oza shares here. Vaccines have advanced health equity around the world more than any other development. As health writer Tara Hael graphically explains, they have averted 154 million deaths over the past 50 years, a life saved every 10 seconds. A joint campaign brought this powerful preventive health care to children in the poorest communities. Author Carrie Arnold explores how rural communities around the world are benefiting from creative and resourceful ways to provide needed care, from telemedicine to microclinics to mobile dialysis buses. Let me introduce you to what’s going on.

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Researchers are working to remove the racial bias built into diagnosis, and in doing so, they are changing not only tools and algorithms, but also lives. As journalist Cassandra Weyard writes, some black patients who were once deemed ineligible for a new kidney are now We are moving up the waiting list for transplants. People with respiratory problems may be able to apply for disability even after previously being found ineligible. Epidemiologists and other public health scientists are discovering that previous assumptions about race lump together disparate groups with different needs and health risks, particularly within the Asian American community. be(See graphic here). By disaggregating data, we can now better diagnose, treat, and even prevent disease. Health writer Jyoti Madhusudhanan reveals that this data-driven approach is already saving lives.

Certain diseases and conditions have been used to justify discrimination, especially when the disease is prevalent in already marginalized groups. For example, those most at risk for mpox are men who have sex with men, a community already hit hard by HIV/AIDS. However, as global health expert Charles Ebichem writes, researchers, clinicians, and community members can learn from past experiences and build existing networks and networks specifically for this stigmatized population. Building a clinic. Author Rod McCulloam says the movement toward culturally sensitive care is helping clinicians better understand and empathize with patients, and even improving medical communication.

Improving health equity requires rethinking the world’s health infrastructure, but we are still at the beginning. But each solution adds support and begins to build a path to justice.