Who We Are and What We Do
Everyone has the right to live the healthiest life possible — though this is still not the reality for people in far too many communities.
For the AAMC Center for Health Justice, health equity is our goal and health justice is the path that gets us there.
Health equity means all communities have a fair and just opportunity to thrive. This requires that all communities have and provide the basic, vital conditions needed for health and well-being: humane housing, breathable air, freedom from violence, and easy access to high-quality health care, to name a few.
What stands in the way of all communities thriving?
The “isms”: classism, racism, sexism, ablism, etc. Those isms work their way into policy and practice decisions that — whether by accident or on purpose — give advantage to some groups and disadvantage to others, thereby sapping the strength of our whole society. The isms unfairly distribute those basic, vital conditions across our communities, creating pervasive and persistent economic, social, and health inequities.
So, how do we achieve health equity?
The AAMC Center for Health Justice defines health justice as centering community wisdom and multisector partnerships to codevelop the kinds of evidence that can be baked into policy and practice change at all levels — organizational, local, state, and federal — to create genuine health opportunity for all.
We start with community expertise because that’s where the solutions and strategies are. We prioritize multisector efforts because health outcomes for people and communities extend far beyond the medical care they receive, encompassing a range of social, environmental, and systemic factors. We aim for sustainable policy and practice change because injustice can work around temporary or partial fixes.
Working together, we are a movement to improve the health and well-being of people and communities everywhere.
What We Do
The AAMC Center for Health Justice collaborates with academic health systems, public health and community-based organizations, government and health care entities, the private sector, community leaders, and community members to improve the health of people everywhere.
The Center builds a case for health justice through research, analysis, and collaborations that drive our efforts to build a better future.
Engage the Health Justice Community
- Continue our work alongside AAMC CHARGE (the Collaborative for Health Equity: Act, Research, Generate Evidence), an interprofessional and cross-disciplinary group of health equity scholars and champions from across the United States.
- Collaborate with the Multisector Partner Group, where national leaders, local leaders from community-based organizations, and community organizers from 10 sectors representing the diverse social and political determinants of health convene to determine the center’s priorities and strategy.
- Convene experts, policymakers, and community members to examine health inequities data and act together to address these inequities.
- Respond to requests for stakeholder engagement and provide important insight to federal agencies that work toward and fund health equity.
Build Evidence and Share Expertise
- Conduct nationally representative opinion polling to learn how the public feels about health equity and justice.
- Produce original research and analysis to build support for policy and practice changes that have a systemic impact.
- Provide funding for on-the-ground partnerships, evidence-building, and implementation of interventions for health equity.
Ease the Path to Health Equity
- Equip organizations both inside and outside of health care with the tools they need to become trustworthy partners to their communities.
- Guide institutions toward a deeper understanding of equity-focused, person-first language and narratives and why these choices matter.
- Develop tools to help institutions and community organizations communicate with each other about their health equity work and form sustainable, effective, co-equal partnerships.