Achieving Health Equity: A Guide for Health Care Organizations

This white paper provides guidance on how health care organizations can reduce health disparities related to racial or ethnic group, religion; socioeconomics status; gender; age; mental health; cognitive, sensory, or physical disability; sexual orientation or gender identity, geographic location; or other characteristics historically linked to discrimination or exclusion. 

It includes: 

-A framework, with five key components, for health care organizations to improve health equity in the communities they serve

- Guideance for measuring health equity

- A case study of one health care organization that has strategically integrated work to improve health equity throughout their system

- A self- assessment tool for health care organizations to gauge their current focus on and effort to improve health equity

Health literacy, the role of beliefs and barriers in Afghanistan. A quantitative study

The concept of health literacy (HL) is of growing interest worldwide but little is known about the status of HL in crisis-affected countries such as Afghanistan. Afghan health professionals report that HL and the health status are very poor and  cultural and religious belief and various barriers influence the health-related behavior. Following the assumption that improving HL may increase adequate health behavior, to measure HL and perception is of political , scientific and practical relevance. 

How to transfer good practices in integrated care internationally: From self-assessment to knowledge transfer and improvement in care

The challenge of an ageing population is faced by many regions and countries in Europe, and integrated care is a recognised solution to it. Increasing the readiness and capacity of regions to be able to implement integrated care is crucial. In Scotland and in the Puglia region of Italy, a knowledge transfer exercise has been undertaken using the Scirocco model to do just that. 

Implementing High-Quality Primary Care Through a Health Equity Lens

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of centering health equity in future health system and primary care reforms. Strengthening primary care will be needed to correct the longstanding history of mistreatment of First Nations/Indigenous and racialized people, exclusion of health care workers of color, and health care access and outcome inequities further magnified by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) released a report on Implementing High-Quality Primary Care: Rebuilding the Foundation of Health Care, that provided a framework for defining high-quality primary care and proposed 5 recommendations for implementing that definition. Using the report’s framework, we identified health equity challenges and opportunities with examples from primary care systems in the United States and Canada. We are poised to reinvigorate primary care because the recent pandemic and the attention to continued racialized police violence sparked renewed conversations and collaborations around equity, diversity, inclusion ...