Health Equity Is Pursuing Social Justice in Health

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Melissa A Davis, Emory University; Efren J Flores, Harvard University
• Language: English
• Date: 2022-01-01
• Publisher: ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © 2021 American College of Radiology.
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jacr.2021.10.003
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN COLLEGE OF RADIOLOGY
• Volume: 19
• Issue: 1
• Start Page: 99
• End Page: 100
• Keywords: Science & Technology; Radiology, Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging; Life Sciences & Biomedicine
• Research Categories: Health Sciences, Medicine and Surgery

Abstract

Throughout 2020 and 2021, we have continued to see health care systems across the world fall to the strains of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, with no clear end in sight. At the time of this editorial, there have been 218,205,951 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 4,526,583 deaths reported worldwide, and we are in the throes of the third wave, driven by the delta variant [1]. The impact of this pandemic on our vulnerable populations has been devastating, with a particular impact on our Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous populations, who have experienced worse COVID-19–related outcomes due to a complex combination of societal and health care factors. If there is a silver lining in the pandemic, it is that it has shone a bright spotlight on the long-discussed health disparities our vulnerable populations face, the direct impact of social determinants of health on clinical outcomes, and the gaps that we must work to close as a health care community. Achieving health equity and a data-driven, community-based healthier future for all is a national priority that has the support of governmental agencies, national organizations, and health care systems across the United States [2]. Radiology is playing an important role in achieving health equity with the newly formed health equity coalition, which aims to build the community effort needed to make a meaningful impact in addressing health disparities. This special issue of JACR on health equity brings together a diversity of topics and authors and will serve as a foundational pillar that showcases the equity work being done across the specialty.