To move towards achieving health equity, we need to expand traditional research approaches to include more perspectives, ideas and methodologies. As we do so, I believe we will enhance our rigor and excellence. Here’s what it might look like — and what we’re practicing in our own work:
1. Valuable lived experience
Individuals who experience in everyday life that researchers study “social issues” will bring essential knowledge to our fields. We should appreciate and encourage people with diverse life experiences to participate in research because their experiences can help us understand where barriers exist and how to overcome them. We can then apply this additional knowledge into actionable evidence to improve health equity.
Achieving health parity requires our research to be a true reflection of the country’s demographics. And not just researchers. It should be every institution involved in research, including academic, publishing and philanthropic. At our foundation, we’ve made a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion to recruit leaders and employees from diverse backgrounds, perspectives, expertise, and/or life experiences. We have been working on this for many years and will continue to strive for fair representation. (You can see our latest demographic report including staff and trustees.) Diversifying research makes the evidence stronger and helps us deliver it. into action.
2. Research should be community-focused
Academia has long cherished randomized controlled trials as the gold standard of research (to name one example). But COVID-19 has highlighted the need to address nuanced community conditions and dynamics through a range of methodologies to advance health equity.
That’s why we invest in research that takes place in the community and/or engages community members in a meaningful way. We welcome eclectic, mixed methodologies connecting quantitative and qualitative data that can generate both authentic community partnerships and solid research evidence, as well as possible policy change. act.
Research should also be accountable to the community — and not simply mining. What we learn from community-based research can be applied back right into the community, starting an evidence-based action roadmap. RWJF invests many of its research dollars through our “Actions of Action”, namely Action Policy, Evidence for Action, Action Systems, Health Data for Action and Health Equity Scholar for Action. I invite you to explore how emerging research from these centers is being applied in real life.
3. Data needs to be complex and complex to be useful
Proof is only as strong as its data. However, we often get evidence based on data collection and reporting that in itself carries structural elements of racism.
One example is not enough racial and ethnic discrimination in the current data system. It is problematic to group all Asian populations without regard to different cultures, languages, immigration histories, or wide differences in health, education, and wealth. . Typically, racial and ethnic information for population groups is not collected, analyzed or reported, or it is discounted. For example, see data collected for Native American Indians and Alaskans, peoples of the Middle East and North Africa, as well as populations of Native Hawaiians or other Pacific Islander populations. Another example is the lack of good population data on disability. These flaws make populations invisible, masking unique needs and hiding strengths and assets. It leads to ill-informed decisions that affect life and happiness. This lack of separation is clearly part of the problem with our national response to COVID-19.
Another example is siled data. As the COVID-19 pandemic swept the nation, there was a delay in realizing its impact on those incarcerated. We’ve got health data, and we’ve got data on detainees. However, criminal justice-related data is not routinely linked to population health data systems. Pandemic response could have been improved with better data linkage and more inclusive and equitable focused frameworks.
To this end, RWJF established the National Committee to Transform Public Health Data Systems. The Commission will reimagine how data is collected, shared and used, and determine what is needed to update our public health data infrastructure to improve health equity. .
Towards bold and lasting change
When some groups lack an equal opportunity to reach their full potential, our nation cannot deliver on its full promise. Through our funding approaches, we are assisting researchers to further develop action-oriented, mixed-methods approaches that address limited pressing issues. health equity. At RWJF, we don’t have all the answers, but we look forward to continuing to engage, have exploratory conversations, open debate, and most importantly, support work that brings about change. I hope you will help us strengthen and accelerate the evidence that will help our nation achieve better health and equity for all.
I invite you to subscribe to RWJF’s sponsorship notifications. We will keep you informed of our next round of funding.
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