New National Academies report "Ending Unequal Treatment: Strategies to Achieve Equitable Health Care and Optimal Health for All" finds little progress in advancing health care equity, and presents recommendations to intervene
A landmark report that launched the issue of health care inequity into the national spotlight has just gotten a landmark update, thanks to a National Academies committee that includes U-M’s John Z. Ayanian, M.D., M.P.P.
The new report, called Ending Unequal Treatment: Strategies to Achieve Equitable Health Care and Optimal Health for All, concludes that while the American health care system has made some progress over the last 20 years in addressing differences in how members of different racial and ethnic backgrounds receive health care, much remains to be done to ensure equitable care.
Ayanian and his colleagues looked at data and research published, and actions taken at many levels, since the 2003 publication of the original Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial Bias and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care report.
The committee recommends key actions that policymakers, federal agencies, health care providers and clinical organizations should take in order to reduce inequities in both how people from different racial and ethnic backgrounds access care and how well they do after receiving treatment for the same condition.
Ayanian is the director of the U-M Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation, as well as a professor at the Medical School, School of Public Health, and the Ford School of Public Policy.
Ayanian also co-authored a piece in Health Affairs Forefront on the report. He and others will speak to health care researchers about their role in understanding and addressing health care inequities at a panel presentation on July 2 at the AcademyHealth Annual Research Meeting in Baltimore.
The committee on which Ayanian serves is part of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, which published the report. NASEM is the nation’s top convener of experts to study and report on major issues facing the nation. The new report was commissioned by two agencies within the federal Department of Health and Human Services.
Ayanian is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, in part because of his research on advancing health care equity. The 2003 report was published by what was then called the Institute of Medicine and is now the National Academy of Medicine.
Written by Kara Gavin, Institute for Healthcare Policy and Intervention
