Health Affairs September 14, 2022
The disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on historically marginalized communities has elevated and motivated a focus on equity-oriented data—especially race, ethnicity, and language (REL) data—that can be used to identify and intervene on urgent population health priorities. In particular, the pandemic increased awareness of structural racism and structural inequities that have led to long-standing disparities in health outcomes by REL categories, prompting public health and social driver interventions. Health care and public health entities with more complete REL data were able to more quickly and equitably allocate pandemic resources to communities hardest hit by the pandemic. However, the quality and completeness of REL data vary across health care organizations and states, creating state-specific challenges that impede efforts to identify...
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