Health Equity, Diversity & Inclusion

Welcome All!

Pathology and Laboratory Medicine is poised to play a leading role in ensuring health equity is a priority among the populations they serve, the profession, and the healthcare field.

On July 1, 2023, the Joint Commission announced a new National Patient Safety Goal - National Patient Safety Goal to Improve Health Care Equity.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Strategic Plan lists Health Equity as its first pillar.  CMS defines health equity as the attainment of the highest level of health for all people, where everyone has a fair and just opportunity to attain their optimal health regardless of race, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, socioeconomic status, geography, preferred language, and other factors that affect access to care and health outcomes.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) principles emerged in workplace training in the mid-1960s with a goal to identify and eliminate barriers that prevent a work environment in which everyone has the ability to contribute and thrive both internally and externally to the organization.

Several misconceptions surround DEI. One misconception is that DEI is for certain individuals to work towards. Another misconception is that operationalizing DEI principles is only to benefit populations that identify as minority, marginalized, or medically disadvantaged. But is that a bad outcome to strive toward? While populations that identify within the fore-mentioned groups will benefit from intentional implementation of the DEI principles, EVERYONE will benefit thru the practice of identifying policies/practices/systems/barriers/biases/stereotypes that prevent individuals from obtaining their optimal physical and mental health, educational/economic status, career development, and more.

Ensuring health equity, diversity, and inclusion requires all of us actively be aware of our thoughts and examine our beliefs to identify biases/stereotypes we have and to explore how we:

• Develop educational curriculums and content,
• Teach students and trainees,
• Mentor and Sponsor individuals,
• Recruit and retain employees,
• Develop policies (e.g., human resources),
• Prioritize research initiatives and funding allocations (e.g., identify medically underserved populations),
• Practice medicine (i.e., provide differential test interpretation for patients using social constructs, employ testing workflows and methods [point of care testing]),
• Deliver care (e.g., test menus that meet the needs of the communities we serve, reference interval establishment, create a non-toxic environment)