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Advocates Look to Solve Unequal Treatment in Healthcare

KPSOM hosts forum highlighting National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine study on racial disparities and solutions

October 24, 2024

Dr. John L. Dalrymple, KPSOM Dean and CEO, welcomes attendees at a forum on “Ending Unequal Treatment: Findings and Action Steps from a New Report”.

Realizing equitable healthcare and optimal health for all has proven to be a challenging goal within the United States. With this in mind, the Kaiser Permanente Institute for Health Policy (IHP), the Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine (KPSOM), and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) hosted a forum, “Ending Unequal Treatment: Findings and Action Steps from a New Report,” at KPSOM on October 7.

The event featured NASEM’s recent report: Ending Unequal Treatment: Strategies to Achieve Equitable Health Care and Optimal Health for All . The report is an update, more than 20 years later, of the institution’s groundbreaking original 2003 study, Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care . The authors examined the current state of ethnic and racial healthcare disparities and many of its findings were shared during the forum.

The forum included wide-ranging speakers from the health, community advocacy, and policy worlds. Left to right: Dr. Andrew Bindman; Dr. Georges Benjamin; Dr. Vincent Guilamo-Ramos; Dr. Elaine Batchlor; Reginald Tucker-Seeley; and Dr. John L. Dalrymple.

Event attendees were welcomed by Cecilia Oregón, MPP, MPH, Executive Director of the Institute for Health Policy, Kaiser Permanente; John L. Dalrymple, MD, Dean and CEO of the Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine; and Monica Feit, PhD, MPH, Executive Director for the Health and Medicine Division of The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Andrew Bindman, MD, Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of Kaiser Permanente, acted as panel moderator.

Event panelists included Georges Benjamin, MD, Executive Director, American Public Health Association; Elaine Batchlor, MD, MPH , Chief Executive Officer of MLK Community Healthcare; Vincent Guilamo-Ramos, PhD, RN, MPH, MSW, Professor and Executive Director of The Institute for Policy Solutions, Johns Hopkins School of Nursing; and Reginald Tucker-Seeley, MA, ScM, ScD, Principal and Owner of Health Equity Strategies and Solutions. Dr. Benjamin co-chairs the Committee on Unequal Treatment Revisited: The Current State of Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care and is co-editor of the published report. The additional panelists are members of the Committee on Unequal Treatment Revisited and contributed greatly to the book’s findings.

Panelists share their findings on health inequities with attendees during the forum.

During the discussion, the panelists shed light on the key drivers of healthcare inequities and provided details on the progress that has occurred in the past 20 years as well as enduring gaps that have contributed to healthcare inequity. The group shared more on their efforts to better understand the changing dynamics of healthcare inequity over time. They further provided details on factors that have either reduced or increased overall progress related to health equity, and addressed factors related to variances in life expectancy and national economic consequences, noting that the nation fares better economically when disparities are addressed.

The panelists explained their findings from a broader political, legal, societal, and historical context by addressing issues ranging from the negative results of underpayment in Medicare and Medicaid to the lack of access to community-based care. Panelists also stressed the need to expand the healthcare workforce, ensure clinical care is adequately reimbursed, remove arbitrary restrictions to care and training for healthcare workers, and introduce renewed focus on whole-person care. Dr. Benjamin specifically emphasized that improving healthcare equity for all is a collaborative, rather than a zero-sum, goal that benefits society as a whole, and Dr. Guilamo-Ramos insisted that research shows that a more representative healthcare workforce collectively benefits society.

Many KPSOM faculty and staff took part in the event. Left to right: Rose Rodriguez; Ashanntí Hill Mims; Natalie Yragui; Amy Molina; Dr. John L. Dalrymple; Dr. Lori Carter-Edwards; Ifeoma Dawodu; Melissa Platt; Ije-Enu N Udeze Nwosu; Dr. Jonathan Finkelstein; and Kaiser Permanente’s Dr. Andrew Bindman.

Overall, the panelists’ research concluded that “comprehensive and sustained efforts to improve health care across the continuum of care, from primary to specialty care, including mental health care, have often been the most beneficial to minoritized populations facing the deepest inequities.” The panelists’ discussion and the following question-and-answer session showed that achieving and sustaining healthcare equity is a complex, continuing activity requiring many comprehensive strategies and tactics. With this consideration, it was clear that KPSOM’s efforts to educate its medical students on the full social, systemic, and socio-political context of healthcare is critical, in addition to the school’s curricular pedagogy related to systemic racism, health and governmental policy, and licensing and continued education.

View the forum recording here .

Learn more on the published report, Ending Unequal Treatment, here .

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