Access to care is a complex topic that includes the study of whether sufficient health care resources exist to meet people’s needs, as well as whether people experience physical, financial or other barriers to those services. Evidence in this area can span from whether a rural community has enough specialists, like cardiologists, to whether people in an urban community have transportation or language barriers that make seeing health care providers more difficult.
In this brief, researchers address another large, systemic barrier to making Medi-Cal work for California farmworkers and their families because despite coverage status, the current organization of care delivery in Medi-Cal does not adequately provide equitable access to care for this population.
Individuals with disabilities face many health disparities, as do rural residents. The recent NIH designation of people with disabilities as a population with health disparities presents a needed opportunity for robust research at the intersection of disability, rurality, and health.
Rural hospital closures impact access to care for many rural Americans who may already experience health disparities. Policymakers can help address this crisis by funding research on the implications and evaluating alternative models of care.
AcademyHealth, in collaboration with the CDC, the CDC Foundation and collaborative partners, hosted a one-day meeting to showcase work analyzing current trends in sexually transmitted disease (STD) testing and care delivery in the Medicaid program.
The United States has a maternal health crisis that disproportionately impacts patients in rural areas. Policymakers can address these disparities by enabling better access to care and supporting workforce development in rural communities.
AcademyHealth Senior Manager Danielle DeCosta highlights key takeaways from the AcademyHealth and Commonwealth Fund study tour, including ways the Australian health system has worked to address health inequalities and improve health outcomes.
AcademyHealth presents research nominated as the best abstract for each theme from the 2023 Call for Abstracts, exploring topics related to patient-centered research, mental health and substance use, women’s health, and more.
AcademyHealth, in collaboration with the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, hosted a meeting with clinical experts, researchers, patients and other stakeholders on possible causes of pre-hospital diagnostic delay. This meeting will inform a call for proposals to advance the evidence base for pre-hospital diagnostic delays related to cancer, sepsis, and acute cardiovascular conditions.
In the issue brief, AcademyHealth outlines current and potential areas for future research on pre-hospital diagnostic delay. Diagnostic delays in the clinical setting are well-researched, but there is little understood about delays occurring before a patient enters the health care setting, which leads to worse and inequitable health outcomes.
