HEAL

Dr. Leon D. Caldwell, Senior Director, Health Equity Strategies and Innovation, in the Institute of Diversity and Health Equity at the AHA, sits down with Dr. James Min, CEO and Co-founder of AHA Associate, Cleerly, as well as Dr. Richard Chazal, Senior Cardiologist and Medical Director of the Heart & Vascular Institute at Lee Health System.

Edmondo Robinson, M.D., MBA, MS, FACP, senior vice president and chief digital officer at Moffitt Cancer Center spoke with Julia Resnick, director of strategic initiatives at the American Hospital Association about how Moffitt’s approach to digital health improves equity for the patients they serve.

As digital health continues to expand, hospitals and health care systems will need a digital health equity strategy to ensure that all their patients can access needed medical and social services.

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, digital solutions, including mobile health apps, patient portals and telehealth serve as a critical access point for health care providers to reach patients.

National Minority Health Month can be a launchpad to closing the ‘knowing-doing’ gap.

Attendees of the upcoming Accelerating Health Equity Conference, May 10-12 in Cleveland, will have an excellent opportunity to see the Health Equity Roadmap come to life as they join counterparts in other health care and community organizations for hands-on learning that can bolster efforts to advance diversity, equity and inclusion.

We spoke with Leon D. Caldwell, AHA’s senior director for health equity strategies and innovation and one of the Health Equity Roadmap’s architects, about its importance to hospitals and health systems.

Now is the time to evaluate how far we have come in closing gaps in health disparities, assess where health care is on the equity journey and take what we’ve learned to strengthen our organizations and communities through collaborative and innovative work — by investing in our neighborhoods and one another.

In the 2021 Annual Disability Equality Index (DEI) findings, we share the tangible ways participating companies are bringing people with disabilities into this new economy to drive inclusion and equality. The results from this report index indicate more business across industries each year view the DEI as a valuable tool.

The role of the physical environment in communication between health-care professionals and persons with communication problems is a neglected area. This study provides an overview of factors in the physical environment that play a role in communication during conversations between people who are communication vulnerable and health-care professionals.

This article looks at how places like hospitals and health care centers, where mobility and accessibility should be a primary goal, are lacking. It provides some background on disability environments and the adjustments made by the time of publication. It also looks at physical access to health care facilities and access to information for people with multiple cognitive disabilities.

This article offers a much needed path to equity in healthcare. It amplifies the fact that measured data allows for dedicated improvements and changes to occur and engaging communities and obtaining their feedback and needs is integral to implementing effective, lasting change.

Unequal Treatment offers recommendations for improvements in medical care financing, allocation of care, availability of language translation, community-based care, and other arenas. The committee highlights the potential of cross-cultural education to improve provider-patient communication and offers a detailed look at how to integrate cross-cultural learning within the health professions. The book concludes with recommendations for data collection and research initiatives.

This white paper provides guidance on how health care organizations can reduce health disparities related to racial or ethnic group; religion; socioeconomic status; gender; age; mental health; cognitive, sensory, or physical disability; sexual orientation or gender identity; geographic location; or other characteristics historically linked to discrimination or exclusion.

This toolkit offers various forms of media and tools that highlight community perspectives on issues and where the AAMC Center for Health Justice's members can improve based on these community insights.

The authors conducted a literature review of academic, foundation, and government publications focusing on sociocultural barriers to care, the level of the health care system at which a given barrier occurs, and cultural competence efforts that address these barriers. A framework of organizational, structural, and clinical cultural competence interventions can facilitate the elimination of these disparities and improve care for all Americans.

This field report looks at culturally competent care, the benefits and needs, and case studies. The case studies offer recommendations and analysis.