Local Health System Transformation

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Community Research for Health Equity program, managed by AcademyHealth, supports community-led research to address local health care system issues of importance to communities of color, people with disabilities, LGBTQ+ individuals, and other historically marginalized populations. Local health system transformation needs to elevate community voices and make the priorities of communities the primary goal of local health system transformation efforts.

Racial disparities in COVID-19 infections and deaths have brought to the forefront well-documented and longstanding inequities in the U.S. health care system. Upending centuries of policy decisions that produced and reproduced racism – including those in the health care system – will require significant transformation as well as community power-building to elevate the voices of communities of color and other communities historically left out of decision-making. In 2022, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation announced ten grants to support community-led research projects that seek to elevate community voices and make the priorities of communities the primary goal of local health system transformation efforts. The funded studies will address local health care system issues of importance to communities of color, people with disabilities, LGBTQ+ individuals, and other historically marginalized populations. AcademyHealth is currently working with the grantees as they conduct their studies and disseminate their findings.