Poverty is a key driver of health disparities. But numerous policies have been shown to help alleviate poverty and improve health equity, according to Dr. Rita Hamad, associate professor of social and behavioral sciences at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Hamad says policymakers need to look upstream and identify the root causes of health issues.

“And really recognizing that poverty is one of the major root causes of those issues, and that if we don't address that… those health issues are just going to keep arising and not getting any better,” she says.

On this episode of the Health Disparities podcast, Hamad speaks with Movement Is Life’s Dr. Charla Johnson about evidence-based policies for alleviating poverty — like the child tax credit, earned income tax credit — and explains how healthcare systems can get more involved in bolstering the social safety net.

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A diverse healthcare workforce is critical to improving outcomes for our diverse nation.

In order to achieve this, there needs to be both a pipeline and a pathway, says Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice, President and CEO of Morehouse School of Medicine.

“We need students to believe what’s possible in first grade and then chart a path,” she says.

Montgomery Rice says her own love and science and people led her to chart her career pathway that led her into academic medicine. “What if everybody was given that opportunity. What if everybody was told you can be whatever you want to be?”

“Every one of my roles has been about how to develop people to bring their best self to work,” she says.

Although health equity work can be polarized and be perceived as political, Montgomery Rice says Morehouse School of Medicine is committed to leading the creation and advancement of health equity — both through new solutions and through complementing existing ones.

The heart of her message on health equity: It’s about “giving people what they need, when they need it, to achieve optimal level of health.”

Montgomery Rice spoke with Movement Is Life’s Dr. Carla Harwell for this episode, which was recorded at Movement Is Life’s annual health equity summit.

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Participating in religious activities appears to benefit cardiovascular health among Black Americans. It’s something we explored in an episode on this podcast a few years back.

Health systems, professional societies and researchers are increasingly recognizing that “faith-based organizations are trusted institutions within underserved communities and that people not only seek spiritual refuge and salvation in these places of worship, but they are also wonderful, trusted vessels to distribute reliable health information,” says Dr. LaPrincess Brewer, a faculty member in the division of Preventive Cardiology, department of Cardiovascular Medicine at Mayo Clinic.

“Participating in religious activities from church services to private prayer, as well as holding deep spiritual beliefs are linked to better cardiovascular health among Black Americans," according to researchers of a 2022 study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

The researchers go on to suggest that recognition by health professionals and researchers of the centrality and influence of religiosity and spirituality in the lives of African American adults may serve as a means to address cardiovascular health disparities.

In an episode that was first published in 2023, Movement Is Life’s Dr. Mary O’Connor spoke with Dr. Brewer, whose primary research focus is reducing cardiovascular disease health disparities in racial and ethnic minority populations and in underserved communities, and Clarence Jones, a community engagement specialist and former director of community engagement at a federally qualified health center in Minneapolis who has extensive experience in collaborating with community and faith-based partners in promoting community wellness and access to health services.

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In today’s episode, we explore some big questions about community health — and how hospitals and health care workers can help promote equitable health outcomes in their communities.

The Community Health Needs Assessment, or CHNA, is a powerful tool for promoting health equity, says Leslie Marshburn, Vice President of Strategy & Population Health at Grady Health System.

“We want to be hearing directly from the individuals that we serve — what they believe their community health needs are,” Marshburn says. The information is coupled with public data, “ideally at the most granular level, like the census track or zip code. And so those national data sets can help inform what the needs are, and then layering that with the community voice through your primary data collection and synthesizing all of that helps you identify your priorities.”

When it comes to improving health outcomes in communities, it’s also critical that health care providers understand health disparities, says Dr. Maura George, an associate professor in the Department of Medicine and an internist at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, where she also serves as Medical Director of Ethics.

“I think clinicians who don't know how to recognize disparities are going to perpetuate them, and we can all do that unintentionally,” George says. “I think knowing our own internalized bias, implicit bias is important, because you have to realize how that can interact in the patient care space.”

Marshburn and George joined Movement Is Life’s summit as workshop panelists, and spoke with steering committee member Dr. Zachary Lum for this podcast episode.

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Across the globe and in the U.S., environmental crises loom large and threaten our most vulnerable populations.

“There's a lot of dying that's happening now, and it's primarily among poor, Black and Brown people,” says Dr. Cheryl Holder, who’s on a personal mission to inspire clinicians to act on climate change.

Holder explains that a person’s health and well-being is directly impacted by the environment they’re surrounded by.

“In celebrating and recognizing the environment, we recognize that this is how we define humanity, and how we create the environment for us to grow and thrive,” she says.

In honor of Earth Day, which is coming up this month, we’re dipping into our archives to bring you a conversation with Dr. Cheryl Holder. She’s now retired, but at the time this conversation was recorded and produced for the Health Disparities podcast in 2021, Dr. Holder was serving as the Interim Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity and Inclusivity and Community Initiatives, and associate professor at the Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine, Florida International University.

This episode was originally published in 2021 with host Elise Tolbert.

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What motivates Joel Bervell, a.k.a. the Medical Mythbuster, to create social media content addressing racial disparities, the hidden history of medicine, and biases in healthcare?

He’s seen how it can literally save lives.

A year after Bervell posted a video about disparities in pulse oximeters for Black patients, a man reached out to share that during the pandemic, he had reported to the hospital with shortness of breath, a fever and COVID symptoms. The pulse oximeter reported 100% oxygen saturation, so he was told to go home.

“But he felt horrible, and he had recently seen my video” showing pulse oximeters can report falsely high oxygen readings in Black patients, Bevell says. “And so he told the doctors.. I want to stay here at the hospital. Is that okay?”

The doctors let him stay, and the man ended up crashing the night, ending up in the ICU with intubation. He’s grateful he survived, and later reached out to Bervell to say, “because of your video, I felt confident being able to say, ‘I don't know if this is accurate for me, I don't feel well. I want to stay.’”

Bervell says this is why he creates videos like these, to help people understand medical issues “so they can feel confident to let their needs be known” to health care providers.

Hear more on this story and the latest adventures of the Medical Mythbuster Joel Bervell, who joined Movement Is Life’s summit as a closing plenary speaker, and spoke with Board member Dr. Erick Santos for this podcast episode.

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Weight bias is pervasive and is one of the most common forms of bias in the U.S.

When it comes to obesity medicine, patients can be their worst critics, says Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford, an obesity medicine physician scientist, educator, and policy maker at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

“They’re their worst critics because what they’ve heard from their doctors, their family members, their peers is that they have failed,” Dr. Stanford says. “My goal is to help them realize that they’re not, indeed, a failure. There are options. We can treat this disease. We do have treatments available.”

Dr. Stanford is a national and international sought-after expert in obesity medicine who bridges the intersection of medicine, public health, policy, and disparities. She joins the Health Disparities podcast to discuss weight bias, how that bias causes stress, and the role of stress in obesity.

This episode was originally published in 2019 with host Dr. Bonnie Mason Simpson.

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It takes a village to find and implement strategies that promote positive health outcomes in communities across the U.S. — and the nation’s public health agency is working to promote these innovations.

“The best innovations that we've had for humankind have come from these types of collective strategies,” says Dr. Karen Hacker, director of the CDC National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.

This week on the Health Disparities Podcast, we're joined by Dr. Hacker, who shares her insights on healthcare collaboration and bridging community-clinical services to help address social determinants of health, which are linked to chronic diseases that affect 6 in 10 Americans.

“The number one focus of our efforts is: How do we support the public health system to really think about strategies that are evidence-based to help their constituents across the nation make the healthiest choices that they can make?” she says.

Dr. Hacker joined Movement Is Life’s summit and spoke with steering committee member Sarah Hohman for this podcast episode.

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