CTSC Prepares for Health Equity Takeoff with Inaugural, Four-Part Mission: Health Equity Challenge Series

Aiming for Awareness and Action, Interdisciplinary, Cross-Institutional Participation is the Key to Advancement

This article is a CTSC Special Announcement. 

Complex or “wicked” problems can be intimidating. Oftentimes, with no one-size-fits-all solution available, these types of problems require radical collaboration, innovative thinking, and rapid implementation to assess effectiveness of an approach. In the case of health equity, assessing effectiveness of solutions comes with an unmatched urgency because matters of health inequity have life or death and quality of life consequences that start with the patient and can expand beyond bystander comprehension.

Color of Care Poster

The Color of Care is a documentary produced by Oprah Winfrey’s HARPO Productions and the Smithsonian Channel that chronicles how people of color are given systemically-supported substandard healthcare in the United States. The documentary uses the COVID-19 pandemic as an example to highlight racial health disparities in action. Watch the film in-person or virtually to complete Challenge #1. 

So, what can we do? Whether you’re a clinician, researcher, nurse, advanced practice provider, or caregiver in another capacity (e.g., administrative staff, clinical research professional), we can all commit to advancing health equity through our work. Those intentional shifts in how we interact with colleagues and communities we serve will catalyze an avalanche of change and impact to move from gradual improvements to grand cultural and systemic breakthroughs.

Health Disparities Book Cover

Why Are Health Disparities Everyone’s Problem? by Lisa Cooper, MD, MPH, vividly illustrates that health is determined by more than a person’s choices and behaviors and is the text for discussion in Challenge #2.

The CTSC invites researchers and health equity champions (i.e., anyone with a passion and purpose for health equity) from Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland Clinic, Louis Stokes VA Cleveland Medical Center, MetroHealth, University Hospitals, and CTSA hubs nationwide, to participate in a four-part health equity challenge series launching in September 2022 and concluding in March 2023.

 Please click HERE to learn more about each challenge and register.