Health Equity Research Program

Health Equity Research Program

CHAMP’s Health Equity Research Program focuses on identifying how structural determinants impact health inequities, especially access to and quality of health care. Understanding the underlying structures, institutions, or policies contributing to inequities is essential for designing policies and programs that promote the health of all. Health equity means that everyone has a fair and just opportunity to attain optimal health regardless of race, ethnicity, immigration status, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, socioeconomic status, geography, preferred language, or other factors that affect health. In collaboration with trainees and community partners, we aim to generate rigorous evidence that informs policies and programs to address deep-rooted health inequities in the United States. 

Drug Utilization Research

We describe population patterns in medication use to assess inequities in access to essential medicines, or those medications that satisfy the priority health needs of the population. We also analyze how federal and state policies impact access to these medications.

Immigrant Health

We examine the impact of immigration status (nativity, citizenship, and documentation status) on health and health care access, especially in the Latinx population. In our scholarship, immigration status is considered a proxy for exposure to discriminatory federal, state, and local policies that result in systemic exclusion from safety-net programs, unequal labor protections, increasing law enforcement violence, and other manifestations of structural racism.

Access to Pharmacies and Pharmacy Services 

We investigate inequities in geographic access to pharmacies, with the goal of informing policy interventions that promote equitable access to healthcare, especially medications, among minoritized populations. 

Equity in Cancer Care

We assess the impact of area-level structural barriers (e.g., neighborhood segregation) on timely and appropriate screening and treatment. Most recently, we have focused on access to cancer clinical trials. Equitable access to  trials is essential from a health care equity perspective because investigational drugs may be the only appropriate treatment, especially in rare or late-stage cancers.