The Rise to Health Coalition was launched last year by the AMA, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and numerous other partners, and it aims to help physicians and health care organizations take coordinated actions that have a strong national impact in advancing health equity.
As part of the coalition, the Equitable Professional Societies Network was convened by the AMA and the Council of Medical Specialty Societies, in collaboration with the social and racial justice groups HealthBegins and Race Forward.
The network represents professional societies, one of five pillars of the Rise to Health Coalition. The others are:
- Individual physicians and other nonphysician providers.
- Payers.
- Health care organizations.
- Pharmaceutical, biotechnology and research organizations.
In collaboration with stakeholders and national thought leaders from each of these areas, the coalition has designed a set of customized, practical actions geared toward getting each of these groups started on a path toward achieving health equity.
Representing the AMA at a kickoff event for the Equitable Professional Societies Network was AMA President-elect Bobby Mukkamala, MD, a head and neck surgeon from Flint, Michigan—a community where Dr. Mukkamala said he sees “the results of glaring health inequities up close.”
“I see the results of a system where Black and brown patients far too often lack access to basic medical care,” he said. “Where they are misdiagnosed or undertreated for serious conditions. Where social determinants of health like food and housing security and environmental factors negatively impact health outcomes and opportunities for a long and healthy life.”
Dr. Mukkamala noted that “the importance of this work has only increased,” as health inequities continue to widen, “alarming increases” in maternal mortality and chronic disease persist and attempts to create a culture of equity and inclusion within medicine are under attack.
“Together, we are seeking to influence health policies and structures by helping fundamentally change standards, guidelines, practices, payments and education at local, state and national levels through an interprofessional coalition of health care professional societies,” Dr. Mukkamala said.
“We know that the most effective approach to achieving health equity is a unified strategy that combines the best thinking of physicians, nurses, scientists, researchers, academics and support teams,” he added. “We are working to transform narratives by changing mindsets around equity and racial justice in medicine.”
Revising dominant narratives
Participating organizations in the network will develop an anti-racist discipline to drive equitable impact and accountability. Throughout the network sessions, participants will build skills in equitable organizational systems change, embedding race and health equity into strategic planning, fostering an inclusive and equitable organizational culture, and building and sharing collective power. Organizations participating in the action workstreams that are also a part of the Equitable Professional Societies Network are expected to address subjects such as reconsidering race in clinical algorithms and workforce diversification.
Recently, the network hosted a learning session why narratives matter for race and health equity.
Narratives serve as the bridge between the messages and stories we share with one another and our underlying values and worldviews. Such narratives become pervasive through repetition of similar and interconnected stories, explained Teshone Jones, training strategies manager for learning and content at Race Forward, an Oakland, California-based nonprofit.
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In health care, “malignant” or harmful narratives can “advance the belief that individual achievement can heal systemic injustice and that all or most shortcomings must be due to personal failure,” Jones said.
Other harmful narratives include the idea that Black people have thicker skin, so they don't really need as much pain management, she said.
Another narrative is that health is “merely the absence of disease,” Jones said. Such a narrow view impedes a meaningful reckoning with the public health effects of exploitation, environmental burdens and poverty tied to structural racism. Explore further with the AMA’s 2024—2025 strategic plan to advance health equity.
While membership in the Equitable Professional Societies Network is closed, learning sessions will be posted on AMA Ed Hub™. Interested persons can also be added to the network mailing list and join the action workstreams on race-based clinical algorithms and workforce diversification. Follow up by email to learn more about the network and find out how to get involved.
What equity-based narratives can do
Steffie Kinglake, MPH, senior content manager at the AMA Center for Health Equity, noted that health equity-based narratives would:
- Focus attention on inequitable systems, hierarchies, social structure, power relations and institutional practices to reveal the sources of inequities and the mechanisms that sustain them.
- Avoid blaming people for their conditions or assuming that inequity can be resolved through programmatic fixes, without addressing the broader responsibility of corporations and government agencies.
- Encourage public dialogue and response on structural racism and all forms of oppression and inequity.
Kinglake noted that the importance of identifying and countering harmful narratives can be seen in the effective work to challenge race-based algorithms and other manifestations of racial essentialism in medicine.
That is especially true with moving beyond a once widely used formula for calculating kidney function that automatically underestimated the severity of kidney disease in Black patients. The changes have cut kidney-transplant waitlist times for thousands—with a median drop of 1.7 years.
Learn more about the power of narrative transformation to advance health equity during the next National Health Equity Grand Rounds event, Nov. 21, 2–3:30 p.m. CST. Register to join the conversation and earn free CME.
