Center on Health Equity & Access

Initiatives to address social determinants of health are likely to positively change the health care landscape, and better patient education can contribute to more favorable care choices says Ken Cohen, MD, director of translational research for Optum Care.

An interview with Joseph R. Mikhael, MD, MEd, on findings from a Quality Improvement initiative presented during the 64th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting and Exposition in New Orleans, Louisiana. Mikhael is a professor in the Applied Cancer Research and Drug Discovery Division at the Translational Genomics Research Institute, an affiliate of City of Hope Cancer Center, in Phoenix, Arizona.

To best improve health equity, population-based payment models should both incorporate social goals and increase payment for historically marginalized communities, a recent study has found.

Patients with epilepsy on Medicaid insurance of Black, Latino, and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Island ethnicity were associated with lower odds of being on newer, second- and third-generation, antiseizure medications compared with White individuals.

Black Americans with multiple myeloma face disparities in incidence of disease, survival outcomes, and use of evidence-based treatment, which may be exacerbated by socioeconomic factors.

Despite greater incidence of multiple myeloma (MM) reported among Hispanic Americans, these populations report less MM maintenance therapy, longer time from MM diagnosis to novel therapy initiation, and higher in-hospital mortality rates.

A review explored the connection between 4 domains (structural, sociocultural, health care, and physiological) contributing to the persistence of inequities in epilepsy risk and outcomes in the United States, as well as key areas of intervention to promote health equity.

Michael Thompson, president and CEO of the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions (National Alliance), addressed the current state of health equity strategies in the workplace and how employers can better address inequities in their benefit designs, programs, and policies in the near future.

Bruce Sherman, MD, FCCP, FACOEM, underlines the impact of health inequities for patients diagnosed with psoriasis.

Maria Lopes, MD, MS, provides an overview of the PASI scoring system.

Amy McMichael, MD, discusses the impact of psoriasis on a patient’s quality of life.

Ryan Haumschild, PharmD, MS, MBA, leads a panel discussion highlighting the current prevalence of psoriasis.

The novel coalition was announced at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) Forum, which took place December 4-7 in Orlando, Florida.

A cross-sectional study showed that patients experiencing homelessness were at more than 2-fold greater age-adjusted mortality risk due to COVID-19 compared with the general population, with these increased risks observed across race/ethnicity and sex status.

At the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) 2022 Midyear Clinical Meeting & Exposition, Angela M. Hill, PharmD, CPh, RPh, professor and associate dean of clinical affairs; project director, WE-CARE, University of South Florida Taneja College of Pharmacy, will receive the ASHP-ABHP Joint Leadership award for her leadership in addressing health equities.

Joseph Alvarnas, MD, vice president of government affairs at City of Hope and chief clinical adviser of AccessHope in Duarte, California, spoke on the influence that the California Cancer Care Equity Act is having on legislative efforts in other states, as well as future steps to promote accessible, affordable, and effective cancer care for patients nationwide.

The State of Lung Cancer 2022 report issued by the American Lung Association illustrates aspects of diagnosis and care that require additional attention to address disparities and increase nationwide screening and treatment engagement while reducing risk factor exposure.

Joseph Alvarnas, MD, vice president of government affairs at City of Hope and chief clinical adviser of AccessHope in Duarte, California, spoke on how the California Cancer Care Equity Act will allow oncologists to escalate the care of patients with advanced cancers toward established centers that can better meet their needs, as well as implications from the decision to exclude genomic testing coverage in the bill.

A panel including several experts in cardiology discussed the ways that heart failure (HF) can be diagnosed and treated using the new 2022 AHA/ACC/HFSA Guidelines.

Keith C. Ferdinand, MD, FACC, FAHA, FASPC, FNLA, professor of medicine and the Gerald S. Berenson Endowed Chair in Preventative Cardiology, Tulane University School of Medicine, discusses the results of the recently halted FRESH trial, why there is such a great need for new antihypertensive agents, and possible contributory factors to outcome disparities between Black and White patients.

Jim H. Rhodes, deputy county administrator, Camden County, New Jersey, spoke on how his organization’s membership with the Greater Philadelphia Business Coalition on Health (GPBCH) has aided their value-based initiatives in improving health equity in the region.

Joseph Alvarnas, MD, vice president of government affairs at City of Hope and chief clinical adviser of AccessHope in Duarte, California, discusses the recently passed Cancer Care Equity Act in California that provides access to clinical trials and advanced care for Medi-Cal beneficiaries.

Several elements of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) align with CMS’ goals of promoting equity through health policy, explained A. Mark Fendrick, MD, co–editor in chief of The American Journal of Managed Care® and director of the V-BID Center at the University of Michigan.

Despite known racial disparities in access to advanced heart failure (HF) treatments, the reasons for this continue to require further exploration. In this new study, investigators searched for associations between ventricular assist device use and heart transplant and race (Black or White).

Coverage from the Irvine, California, meeting of the Institute for Value-Based Medicine, chaired by Joseph Alvarnas, MD, vice president for government affairs at City of Hope and chief clinical advisor, AccessHope.