During the initial rapid spread of the coronavirus in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the American Dental Association (ADA) released urgent guidance for dental providers to cease all non-emergency dental care by late March 2020. For many weeks, ...

Among the many essential workers putting themselves at risk during the COVID-19 pandemic are environmental services (EVS) workers, many of whom face considerable challenges yet are often overlooked. Despite being referred to as “janitors” or “housekeepers” and not being recognized as an integral part of the hospital team, EVS workers play a critical role in patient safety. Their laborious tasks, which are critical to providing safe and high-quality care, consist of thoroughly disinfecting all surfaces in patient rooms that might spread infection, as well as cleaning beds and equipment, ...

The racial equity movement and COVID-19 are bringing needed public attention to the structural racism and inequities that underlie social and health disparities in the United States. The police killings of George Floyd and so many other Black lives have brought about increasing calls for police reform. In Minneapolis, where George Floyd’s killing occurred, the City Council recently approved a

Primary care is the foundation for population health and well-being. Unfortunately, our efforts to address the coronavirus pandemic have exposed many critical structural deficiencies in our country’s health care system, most notably the lack of investment in primary care. Equal access and equitable care While the disparate impact of the coronavirus on

Although there was no shortage of suffering before coronavirus, this global pandemic, compounded by tragic events involving the loss of Black lives, has brought rising levels of stress and uncertainty. Growing unemployment and physical separation from loved ones have led to increased substance ...

As many Family Medicine colleagues across the United States complete residency, I find myself looking back to those challenging yet invigorating years. Residency training certainly solidified my clinical skills, from diabetes to pregnancy labor management, but also heightened my interest in social issues. Training in Western North Carolina meant working in a non-Medicaid expansion state where Black babies were three times more likely to die within their first year of life than white babies and where those struggling with opioid addiction were often marginalized. Each day seemingly brought ...

As physicians in the intensive care unit (ICU) at Cambridge Health Alliance, a safety-net hospital in the Boston area, our patients regularly fall victim to the intersection of the social determinants of health and the failures of our dysfunctional healthcare financing system. We frequently treat patients whose health problems have been thrust upon them by structural forces: a Black man spiraling into ketoacidosis because he couldn’t pay for insulin at ...

Over the past few decades in the field of education, we have engaged in expensive, energetic and well-intentioned reform to our systems of schooling. These changes, including accountability, curriculum and instruction, have been aimed at achieving a very ambitious goal, summed up in the titles of our two most recent federal policy initiatives: “No Child Left Behind” and “Every Student Succeeds.” Sadly, the results of these reforms at the local, state and federal levels have been modest. There have been pockets of success in individual schools and ...

I can’t breathe! This has become an all too familiar cry for many African Americans who everyday struggle to breathe in a society suffocated by systemic racism and entrenched inequities. They struggle to live in a society that has intentionally erected barrier after barrier intended to weaken their bodies and hasten their deaths. What we have is the perfect storm for a disaster—a serious health crisis, an inequitable method of health delivery, millions of uninsured and under-insured people, an uneven and politically charged approach to dealing with the pandemic, police brutality, and other ...