Dylan Roby, associate professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the University of Maryland School of Public Health and Alex Ortega, from the Department of Health Management and Policy at the Dornsife School of Public Health at Drexel University, co-authored the editorial “Ending Structural Racism in the US Health Care System to Eliminate Health Care Inequities,” published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
The editorial highlighted three recent studies published in JAMA that demonstrate that despite the best efforts of policymakers and researchers, health inequities as a result of systemic racism still persist. The authors explore examples old and new of how American Indian, Black, Latino, and Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities have been subject to long-standing inequity, exacerbated most recently by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“What has become clear is that there needs to be much more intensified and multifaceted approaches that by necessity will require a much larger and committed investment in research, training, clinic practice, and community engagement,” they said.
The article Ending Structural Racism in the US Health Care System to Eliminate Health Care Inequities was published in JAMA on August 17, 2021.
The editorial received media coverage from HealthDay, CNN and The New York Times.