Of all forms of inequality, injustice in healthcare is the most shocking and inhumane.
- Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr
What does health equity mean to you? Its not a concept often taught in our medical education but as physicians-in-training, we see the aftermath of health inequities every day both in our work in the clinical setting and in our life in general. And many times, we're too busy to realize that the social attitudes, behaviors, and policies we set into motion created and propagated these inequities and disparities in the first place. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation found that when confronted with evidence of "glaring socio-economic and racial disparities in health" that focus group participants responded that while these disparities were "unfortunate", that they were "not necessarily unfair". People either felt that "that's just the way things are" and we can't do anything about it or even worse, maybe did not care. In order to combat apathy towards health inequities and disparities, we need to reframe our mindset as health professionals, patients, and members of a common society, to care and to want to participate in bringing about positive change. We need to take ownership of our social injustices and shine a mirror on what's not working in our society and on how other societies, when confronted with the same issues, have managed to have citizens with healthier, less stressful lives. Its about social justice, its about health justice. Its about justice and equity period.
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