News: Boston Medical Center announces Health Equity Accelerator
Boston Medical Center Health System (BMCHS) announced the launch of their new Health Equity Accelerator initiative, geared towards closing healthcare gaps for people of different racial groups.
The announcement came in the BMCHS newsletter, stating that the “health system-wide initiative, the result of more than a year of research and development, brings together leading-edge research methodologies, patient insights and community partnerships, and clinical operations to transform healthcare. The Accelerator will also be a vehicle to exchange ideas and insights within the wider medical community through publishing and policy conversations.”
Additionally, the announcement states that “For generations, there have been tremendous differences in health outcomes among people of different races and ethnicities in the U.S. and Boston. For instance, in Boston, Black men are 2.6 times more likely to die from prostate cancer than white men, Black and Hispanic babies have death rates 4.1 percent and 3.4 percent higher, respectively, than non-Hispanic white babies, and COVID cases were 1.5 times higher in Black communities and 2.2 times higher in Hispanic and Latinx communities than in white communities.”
The Health Equity Accelerator is going to focus on five key areas:
- Maternal and child health
- Infectious diseases
- Behavioral health
- Chronic conditions
- Oncology and end-stage renal disease
Project leaders say they look forward to seeing how the health Equity Accelerator will impact “data over time, the lives, the disparities we have come to expect,” and they are “hopeful that it will very significantly narrow the gabs and change life course trajectory.”
Editor’s note: The BMCHS announcement can be found here. Information about the Health Equity Accelerator can be found here.