Health disparities; is there progress?

Abstract

The contemporary history of health disparities dates to 1984 with the release of the Heckler Report. The differences in outcomes as a function of race were declared striking and not in keeping with the excellence of American Medicine and with a subsequent call to action that would eliminate health disparities. Forty years later, the gaps have widened. Root causes include economic disparity, social determinants of health and elements of bias, both implicit and explicit. Reframing the challenge and noting the extent to which disparities persist across multiple cohorts is the new call to action.