Communities of color have faced systemic differences leading to significant and entirely avoidable differences in achieving optimal health. According to the Institute of Medicine, even in the face of equal access to health care, people of color continually suffer differences in the quality of their health.
These differences are rooted in social, economic, and environmental disparities — disparities which affect health outcomes two times more than clinical care, and which contribute to chronic disease and premature death two times more than access to care.
We must address the structural inequities enmeshed in our health system by dismantling the barriers experienced by communities and populations of color. When health care is informed by evidence-based research, discovery, innovation, translation, and practice based on who we include, we save more lives.
We create thriving, resilient communities. We realize equity.
One such barrier to care is a lack of representative health care providers. Many patients, especially people of color, don’t have a provider who looks like them or shares their experiences. When patients have more in common with their provider, their shared, lived experiences lead to increased trust, better engagement, more compliance with health recommendations, and, ultimately, better outcomes.
But the truth is that there are far fewer Black and underrepresented minority clinicians in the workforce. And that matters — a lot.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion are linked to health care quality, as cited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education:
