This issue brief describes initiatives at three safety net hospital systems designed to improve the health of their respective patients and overcome the challenges providers have faced in finding relevant research to support their efforts. Despite recent progress, significant disparities persist in both the health status and the health care delivered to the nation’s underserved and minority populations.1 The field of health services and policy research is instrumental in building the evidence base for the clinical treatments and policies that reduce disparities. Yet, disease conditions and treatments in minority populations remain insufficiently studied.2 Researchers can help reduce health disparities by addressing the knowledge gaps that safety net clinicians and administrators uncover as they work to improve the health of the patients they serve.
Related resources: