Honoring Black History by Changing Health Inequities

This Black History Month, and every month for that matter, it is my job to highlight the health disparities affecting the black community and work toward real-world solutions. As a global health innovation firm driven by its mission to make the world a healthier place for all, Real Chemistry is committed to doing the work to actualize this vision.

?Health disparities among the Black community are rooted in generations of structural racism, segregation, environmental degradation, and economic and educational suppression. Closing the healthcare gap will require a deliberate and sustainable effort to address the social determinants of the entire health ecosystem to identify and eradicate implicit bias.

?Studies conducted over the last few decades have been consistent in proving that racism impacts social stratification and the ability of the Black community to be healthy—both mentally and physically (1).

?According to a study published in the journal of Psychoneuroendocrinology, even racist experiences increase inflammation in African Americans(2). And it’s no secret that inflammation raises the risk of chronic illnesses like heart attack, neurodegenerative disease, and metastatic cancer (3).

?For the Black community, the average annual cost for health care premiums is almost 20 percent (4) of the average household income—a significant obstacle when considering income inequality and other economic challenges facing the community.

?The Black infant mortality rate is twice the rate for white infants (5). I have personally experienced this with the death of my first child, Stephanie Lynn, at two months old of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).?These inequities exist regardless of a black woman’s education level, economic status, geographic location or marital status.?Additionally, African Americans are more likely to die from cancer and heart disease than whites and are at a greater risk of onset diabetes (6) due to food insecurity.

To make matters worse, most African American areas are more likely to lack hospitals and other health care providers (7) in their area. According to studies, when healthcare providers are located in these communities, they tend to offer lower-quality care.?

Taking advantage of health equities as an actionable priority across the health sectors and disciplines, Real Chemistry hosted its first Health Equity Summit last month that brought together brilliant minds committed to acting on the shared responsibility to address the health challenges in equity. With a wide-reaching list of speakers participating, we put together a high-value conference invaluable to anyone looking to move the needle and improve these disparities.

?Over two days, we discussed actionable items that everyone, not just within the healthcare ecosystem, can adopt to reduce disparities and save lives. Some of those solutions include:

·??????Understanding and addressing the structural racism built into our health ecosystem that often lacks empathetic care for Black patients and equal opportunities for Black healthcare workers.

·??????Developing a pipeline for a diverse health ecosystem workforce

·??????Funding health equity innovations created by Black entrepreneurs

·??????Holding physicians of all races accountable—especially specialists who tend to be white and who control dispersing the newest innovative therapies to assure those therapies are prescribed to Black patients

·??????Corporations and academic medical centers accepting their responsibility to build long-term relationships within the Black community versus just showing up when they need something from the community and then disappearing.

?Our discussion during the Summit got “real” about ways we collaborate to drive long-term change across the health ecosystem by asking the right questions that start to uproot the systems that support the long-standing disparities.?This journey to “real” solutions must continue if we are to realize both the societal and the business value of achieving true health equity.

REFERENCES

1.?????University of Southern California, “Racism has a toxic effect: Study may explain how racial discrimination raises the risks of disease among African Americans,”?Science Daily, May 31, 2019,?https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/05/190531100558.htm.

2.?????April D. Thames, Michael R. Irwin, Elizabeth C. Breen, and S.W. Cole, “Experienced Discrimination and Racial Differences in Leukocyte Gene Expression,”?Psychonueroendocrinology, August 2019,?https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0306453018310436?via%3Dihub.

3.?????University of Southern California, “Racism has a toxic effect.”

4.?????Calculated by the author using the average annual household income for African Americans ($41,361) and the annual health care premium cost for families ($8,200).

5.?????“Infant Health Mortality and African Americans,” U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health, accessed November 17, 2019,?https://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/omh/browse.aspx?lvl=4&lvlid=23.

6.?????“African American Death Rate Drops 25 Percent,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, May 2, 2017,?https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2017/p0502-aa-health.html.

7.?????Darrell J. Gaskin, Gniesha Y. Dinwiddie, Kitty S. Chan, and Rachel McCleary, “Residential Segregation and Disparities in Healthcare Services Utilization,”?Medical Care Research and Review, April 2012,?https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3387667/; Darrell J Gaskin, Gniesha Y. Dinwiddie, Kitty S. Chan, and Rachael R McCleary, “Residential Segregation and the Availability of Primary Care Physicians,”?Health Services Research?47, no. 6 (December 2012): 2353–76,?https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3416972/.

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