Health Equity for All: A Cornerstone of Healthy Communities

Because of health care disparities, not everyone enjoys the same chance of being healthy. At “Health Equity for All,” we discussed how to close the divide, improve access to care and achieve health equity.

While the overall health of Americans has improved over the past few decades, not everyone shared in these gains equally. In fact, today there is a difference of up to 33 years of life expectancy between various racial and geographic groups in the United States.

At this event, nationally renowned health care disparities and informatics expert Michael Christopher Gibbons, M.D., MPH, discussed what communities in central New York can do to improve access to health information, eliminate disparities and achieve health equity for all. Dr. Gibbons is an assistant professor and the associate director of the Johns Hopkins Urban Health Institute in Baltimore, MD.

“Health Equity for All” was the third session in our series “Speaking of Health in CNY: Discussions on Topics that Matter.” The speaker series supports the central New York community in improving the health of its residents by providing a forum to share best practices and successful efforts from other communities.

Document: May 2012 Research Brief

Figure 1 - Health Equity Numbers