Race

If Black women bear the heaviest burdens of the maternal mortality crisis—they are 2.6 times more likely to die during pregnancy or shortly after childbirth—they are also the most determined to address it. Moving beyond grief and rage, their leadership is prioritizing culturally sensitive care, respect for best practices, and greater use of community-based models and licen...

No one is immune from the catastrophic storms, wildfires, heat waves, and drought that accompany climate change, but the risks are far greater for some populations than for others. Unstable housing, food insecurity, inadequate access to care, lack of tree canopy, and proximity to toxic emissions and other environmental hazards all intensify the health consequences. People...

Eighty percent of what impacts our health happens outside of the doctor's office: from education and employment opportunities to access to housing, transportation, and quality food. A panel of global experts will explore actionable solutions to address the root causes of disparities and how to build a path forward for collaboration, community co-creation, and a shared visi...

In its landmark 2002 study, Unequal Treatment, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) stated bluntly that racial and ethnic minorities receive lower-quality health services than white Americans. Two decades after the IOM called out structural racism, the devastating toll remains apparent in the uneven risks associated with COVID, diabetes, asthma, cancer, stroke, and pregnancy. P...

No doctor awakens in the morning determined to discriminate against patients of color, yet their daily clinical decisions too often have that result. Implicit bias—unconscious assumptions and stereotypes—often cause the harm. The failure to ask the right questions, listen closely and reserve judgment can sabotage communication in any patient/physician encounter, but it wor...

From the skewed impact of climate change on the nations that have contributed least to the problem to financing mechanisms that allow primary care services to languish in the poorest countries, inequitable patterns in global health and development are all too evident. To radically reimagine healthcare systems, we need to acknowledge lingering colonialism and commit to exti...

America’s robust biomedical ecosystem and the therapeutic advances it has introduced are making remarkable progress against cancer, heart disease, stroke, and other serious illnesses. But much more needs to be done to ensure that all communities can access the treatments and care they need. Prohibitive costs, ingrained biases, healthcare deserts, and distrust in the medica...

With the power of a text message, the advice of a health worker fits in the palm of your hand. With innovative entrepreneurship, care becomes accessible where it previously was not. With the skill of a midwife, the pregnant woman in need of a champion thrives. Health systems may be complex, but what powers them is simple—the human beings at their backbone who are critical...