Keynote Presentation: Why History Matters When Addressing Health Disparities

There is considerable research being conducting on the topic of health disparities.  It is important to understand why these health disparities exist as well as what is contributing to so many years of sustained health disparities. A cancer diagnosis and treatment outcome are downstream results; therefore, it is important to know what contributed on the front-end to develop a more systematic approach to achieve better health equity. This talk will discuss how history and different systems have contributed to social drivers of health.  These social drivers of health along with our current healthcare system are contributing to health disparities.  I will describe and discuss a few examples of cancer disparities.  Lastly, I will close with some tangible actions that individuals and organizations can take to improve health equity.

Learning Objectives:

1. Discuss the importance of understanding historical contributions to health disparities.

2. Describe the impact social drivers of health and our current healthcare system have on health disparities.

3. Provide action items to improve health equity.