Addressing Health Care Disparities


Dr. Cheryl Clark (right) and research assistant Natacha Johnson used electronic medical records to study mammography use among Black women in Boston.  Though Black women have a lower incidence of breast cancer  their mortality from breast cancer is higher than that of other groups; lack of access to adequate screening and treatment may partially explain this health disparity. Dr. Clark is the Director of Health Equity Research and Intervention at the Center for Community Health and Health Equity at Brigham and Women's Hospital.

In late 2002, Mayor Thomas Menino became the first mayor in the nation to convene the city’s teaching hospitals to explore their role in eliminating racial and ethnic disparities in health care in Boston.

Partners founding hospitals, Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), worked closely with the City’s Public Health Commission to create a comprehensive framework and agenda for hospitals to address and monitor disparities in care.  In 2007, BWH and MGH became the first two hospitals in the nation to measure health outcomes by race and ethnicity by collecting and monitoring data on the race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status of patients and developing performance improvement efforts to eliminate observed disparities. 

Concerned about alarming disparities in health among Boston’s core urban population, the BWH Center for Community Health and Health Equity’s community health initiatives have focused on these priority challenges:

• Higher infant mortality and low birth weight rates for Black infants
• Lower rates of adequate prenatal care for Black and Latina women
• Higher rates of breast and cervical cancer among Black women
• Higher percentages of Black and Latina adolescents who become mothers
• The impact these health concerns have on the health of families and children

At the MGH Center for Community Health Improvement (CCHI), in collaboration with the MGH Disparities Solution Center, priority areas include:

• Diabetes Control.   Efforts to reduce disparities in diabetes control have improved the health of Latino patients and diabetic patients at MGH Chelsea HealthCare Center.
• Colorectal Cancer.  Interventions to increase colorectal cancer screening  through coaching and navigation programs have more than doubled screening rates for pilot program patients.

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