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Health Equity

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Health equity is fair and just access to health resources, protection from health hazards, and health decisionmaking. RAND research aims to understand the causes of disparities in health outcomes, health care access, and health care quality, and to identify opportunities to reduce these disparities.

Commentary
The Equity-First Vaccination Initiative's Challenges and Successes
The Equity-First Vaccination Initiative invested $21 million in community-based organizations to reduce racial disparities in vaccination rollout and support strengthening public health systems in the United States over the longer term. The initiative demonstrated a path forward for funders to center equity in their approach to grantmaking.
Nov 3, 2022
Essay
The Impact of Racism on Patient Safety
Minoritized patients are at high risk of experiencing what the medical field calls “patient safety events.” But the way the U.S. health care system tracks patient safety too often makes their experiences invisible. Better reporting would allow hospitals and other providers to identify disparities in care, and to address them.
Oct 26, 2022

Explore Health Equity

Commentary
A Potential Backslide in Mental Health Care for Millions of Americans
The COVID-19 Public Health Emergency declaration expires in less than a month. When it does, it will have broad-sweeping effects, and one of the most significant is little known: It could begin undoing the expansion of mental health care access for millions of Americans.
Apr 18, 2023
Journal Article
Development of a Medicare Plan Dashboard to Promote Health Equity
The HESS dashboard is a potentially useful tool for presenting data on health equity to health plans.
Apr 14, 2023
News Release
Audio-Only Telehealth Remains Common At Many Safety Net Clinics
In August 2022, more than two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, audio-only telehealth visits still accounted for 1 in 5 primary care visits and 2 in 5 mental health care visits at safety net clinics in California.
Apr 11, 2023
Journal Article
Design of CLARO (Collaboration Leading to Addiction Treatment and Recovery from Other Stresses): A Randomized Trial of Collaborative Care for Opioid Use Disorder and Co-Occurring Depression And/Or Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
This article describes the CLARO collaborative care for co-occurring disorders intervention and clinical trial.
Mar 10, 2023
Report
A Needs Assessment of Women Veterans in Western Pennsylvania: Final Report to Adagio Health
To identify opportunities to expand and enhance Adagio Health's efforts to support women veterans' health and wellness, the authors quantitatively and qualitatively assessed the needs of women veterans in the Adagio Health service area.
Mar 8, 2023
Research Brief
Opportunities to Improve Support for Western Pennsylvania’s Women Veterans
Despite their growing numbers, women who have served in the U.S. military continue to encounter challenges accessing the services and support they need. What national and local programs, services, and supports for veterans are available to meet those needs?
Mar 8, 2023
Commentary
Remembering Slain LA Bishop David O'Connell and His Tireless Community Work
Bishop Dave left a mark on so many lives, and, even after becoming bishop, remained close to the community he so loved. The world has lost a fearless and compassionate leader.
Mar 3, 2023
Journal Article
Many Clinicians Implement Digital Equity Strategies To Treat Opioid Use Disorder
Clinicians who treated patients with opioid use disorder reported less use of telemedicine in 2022 than in 2020. More than three-quarters of survey respondents used digital equity strategies to help patients overcome barriers to video visits.
Feb 22, 2023
Commentary
RAND Experts on Veteran Mental Health Respond to the White House Mental Health Research Priorities
The White House identified eight research priorities to better manage America's current mental health crisis. RAND researchers highlight why each area is critical for veteran mental health and how RAND is contributing to address them.
Feb 20, 2023
Report
The Cost of Cost-Effectiveness: Expanding Equity in Federal Emergency Management Agency Hazard Mitigation Assistance Grants
Researchers offer ways the Federal Emergency Management Agency could simplify or amend the required benefit–cost analysis process in applications for hazard mitigation assistance to be more inclusive of lower-resourced communities.
Feb 15, 2023
Blog
State of the Union, Mental Health First Aid, China's Spy Balloon: RAND Weekly Recap
This weekly recap focuses on President Biden's State of the Union address, the benefits of mental health first aid training, insights on China’s spy balloon, and more.
Feb 10, 2023
Journal Article
State Approaches to Tackling the Opioid Crisis Through the Health Care System
In this paper, policy experts discuss three broad strategies states are taking, through a variety of policy levers, to enhance the quality of and access to treatment for opioid use disorder.
Feb 8, 2023
Report
The Benefits of Mental Health First Aid Training
More than 155,000 New Yorkers were trained in Mental Health First Aid between 2016 and 2020. They learned how to be active listeners, to provide reassurance and information, and to encourage professional care when appropriate. Most of the trainees ended up using their MHFA skills to support others and their own well-being.
Feb 7, 2023
Research Brief
Large-Scale Training in Mental Health First Aid: An Evaluation of New York City's 2016–2020 Efforts
In an evaluation of a city-wide effort to train New Yorkers in Mental Health First Aid, RAND researchers found that the majority of participants had used their skills to help friends, family, neighbors, and coworkers in the past six months.
Feb 7, 2023
Commentary
Research Shows How Communities Are Prioritizing Health Equity
In partnership with RAND, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is tracking how communities are evolving their approaches to building a Culture of Health and advancing health equity. The research offers insights on how and why inequities develop, and more importantly, how communities change course and move towards health equity.
Feb 1, 2023
Journal Article
Human Health and Socioeconomic Effects of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico
The Deepwater Horizon oil spill is the only declared Spill of National Significance in U.S. history, and it significantly impacted the health of people and communities in the Gulf of Mexico region.
Feb 1, 2023
Journal Article
Do Social Isolation and Neighborhood Walkability Influence Relationships Between COVID-19 Experiences and Wellbeing in Predominantly Black Urban Areas?
Black Americans have been disproportionately affected by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2 or COVID-19) pandemic.
Jan 31, 2023
Journal Article
Barriers to Using Clinical Decision Support in Ambulatory Care: Do Clinics in Health Systems Fare Better?
We quantify the use of clinical decision support (CDS) and the specific barriers reported by ambulatory clinics and examine whether CDS utilization and barriers differed based on clinics' affiliation with health systems.
Jan 27, 2023
Journal Article
Randomized Controlled Trial of Rise, A Community-Based Culturally Congruent Counseling Intervention to Support Antiretroviral Therapy Adherence Among Black/African American Adults Living with HIV
We conducted a randomized controlled trial of Rise, a community-based culturally congruent adherence intervention, from January 2018 to December 2021 with 166 Black adults living with HIV in Los Angeles.
Jan 25, 2023
Journal Article
Gender Differences in Patients' Experience of Care in the Emergency Department
Previous work has reported gender differences in diagnosis and treatment in ED settings. However, little is known about gender differences in patient experience in the ED, though such differences are reported in other settings.
Jan 25, 2023

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Researcher Spotlight

Kelly Hyde

Associate Economist

Kelly Hyde (he/him) is an applied microeconomist specializing in the intersections of environmental, health, and behavioral economics. He has studied biased responses to group-disaggregated information about health risks, the distributional impacts of water pollution in the United States, the…
Andrea Richardson

Policy Researcher

Andrea Richardson is a senior policy researcher at the RAND Corporation and a professor at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. Her research focus is nutrition epidemiology and encompasses the social and biological risk factors that underlie obesity throughout the life course. Through her work in…

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