Q&A: Leveling the playing field of population health outcomes

Despite the welcome distractions of breading-making, clutter-busting and binge-watching during the early COVOD-19 lockdowns, it was hard to miss one major headline: Black Americans, particularly older ones, were contracting and dying from the infection at startlingly higher rates compared to their white counterparts.

It was the first time many of us outside the medical community digested jargon like “comorbidities” and “health disparities” and the painful realization that not everyone enjoys a level playing field when it comes to health and wellness.

Neither the nomenclature nor the inequity, however, was new to health care providers and researchers, many of whom have spent decades trying to better understand and begin to close health gaps via a field of medicine...