How stakeholders are working to advance health equity

A special issue of the journal Health Equity, titled "How Stakeholders Are Working to Advance Health Equity," covers the following areas: changing mindsets, promoting antiracism in health delivery systems, and promoting antiracism in health policy.

Guest Editors of the special issue are Laurie Zephyrin, MD, MPH, MBA, Senior Vice President, Advancing Health Equity, The Commonwealth Fund; Claire-Cecile Pierre, MD, Associate Chief Medical Officer, Vice President of Community Health, Brigham and Women's Hospital; and Torian Easterling, MD, MPH, Senior Vice President, Population and Community Health/Chief Strategic and Innovation Officer, One Brooklyn Health.

Featured in the special issue is the article by Allison Bryant, MD, MPH, from Mass General Brigham Health System, and co-authors, titled "A Health System Framework for Addressing Structural Racism: Mass General Brigham's United Against Racism Initiative." The authors describe an antiracism campaign organized into three pillars of focus: leadership/employees/culture, patient care equity, and community health and policy advocacy.

Molly Richardson, Ph.D., MPH, from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and co-authors, contributed the article titled "Community and Systems Contributors and Strategies to Reduce Racial Inequities in Maternal Health in the Deep South: Provider Perspectives." After seeking perspectives from providers of pregnancy, delivery, and postpartum care services in Alabama, the authors concluded that "racism, unjust laws and policies, and poverty/lack of infrastructure in communities emerged as themes contributing to racial disparities in maternal health at the community and systems levels."

The article titled "Collaborative Learning Among Health Care Organizations to Improve Quality and Advance Racial Equity," by Hector Rodriguez, Ph.D., MPH, from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health, and co-authors, focused on stakeholder experiences of a statewide learning collaborative. The results indicated that "the collaborative facilitated learning among groups on innovative approaches for reducing racial disparities in quality."

"Understanding the need for advancing health equity does not equate with knowing how to get there. I'm really excited about this special issue because it provides a clear roadmap of not only that we need to do this, but how to do it," says Health Equity Editor-in-Chief Monica R. McLemore, RN, Ph.D., FAAN, Professor, Child, Family and Population Health Department and Interim Director, Center for Anti-Racism in Nursing, University of Washington, School of Nursing.

More information:
Allison S. Bryant et al, A Health System Framework for Addressing Structural Racism: Mass General Brigham's United Against Racism Initiative, Health Equity (2023). DOI: 10.1089/heq.2023.0077

Molly B. Richardson et al, Community and Systems Contributors and Strategies to Reduce Racial Inequities in Maternal Health in the Deep South: Provider Perspectives, Health Equity (2023). DOI: 10.1089/heq.2023.0114

Ivan A. Copado et al, Collaborative Learning Among Health Care Organizations to Improve Quality and Advance Racial Equity, Health Equity (2023). DOI: 10.1089/heq.2023.0098

Provided by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc