While studies have documented a lack of trust in the health care system, little evidence exists on how to build trust and mutual respect to address and overcome the health disparities that exist across different patient populations, including diverse racial and ethnic populations, lower-income populations, the uninsured, people with complex health and social needs, etc.
In August 2018, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation announced eight awarded grants to better understand the level of trust patients have across the many facets of the health care system, with a particular focus on vulnerable populations. Studies range in focus from examining the role of a mobile app and hospital-based patient and family engagement strategies on building trust and mutual respect to the generation of new tools for tracking and addressing trust and respect issues in the clinical encounter to the identification of the factors that influence various patient populations' trust in the health care system.