News & Media
MSMS Creates Task Force to Address Health Equity
“Every problem is an opportunity in disguise.”
That quote from John Adams, America’s second president, is a good one to recall as we begin to emerge from a once-in-a-lifetime level pandemic.
COVID-19 was, and continues to be, a problem—there’s no debating that. However, if there’s a positive to take from the experience, it’s the fact that it has helped to illuminate the lack of equity that persists in Michigan’s health care system. COVID-19 cases among Black and African American populations were, on a cumulative basis, 40 percent higher than among white populations. Similarly, Black and African American deaths due to COVID were more than three times the rate among their white counterparts.
It’s an alarming discrepancy that’s goes well beyond COVID-19. Countless Health disparities and unequal outcomes persist among various patient populations, and it’s a problem the Michigan State Medical Society intends to address.
To that end, MSMS is launching a new task force to Advance Health Equity to conduct extensive, thoughtful statewide conversations on the topic.
The goal of the task force is to eliminate health disparities by pursuing health equity throughout society by direct engagement with policymakers, medical schools, health care leaders, members and other stakeholders and to advance policies that lead to a more diverse physician workforce, greater cultural awareness, mitigation of social determinants of health, and transparent and equitable organizational structures.
The Task Force to Advance Health Equity will be chaired by Theodore Jones, MD. Doctor Jones is past Speaker of the MSMS House of Delegates and Director of Maternal Fetal Medicine at Beaumont Hospital in Dearborn. Doctor Jones is also the founder and medical director of the Perinatal Infectious Disease Clinic at the Detroit Medical Center University Health Center, the only obstetrical clinic for pregnant women with HIV infection in the state, as well as former president of the Wayne County Medical Society.
“We are living through an unparalleled time that has laid bare significant gaps in health equity in many communities across the state,” said Doctor Jones. “These communities share many attributes but important among them are that they are much less healthy, less safe, have less opportunities for jobs, more likely to be food deserts, have poorer access to health care many other communities in the state. MSMS and its members recognize that they are in a position to be active change agents that encourage an honest examination of the systems of government and culture and health care that reinforce a legacy of exclusion and structured oppression that impedes racial justice and equity. The task force will take on the work of devising a robust response to this very real need.”