Wally Smith, M.D., chair of the Division of Quality Health Care, and Steven H. Woolf, M.D., M.P.H., professor in VCU’s departments of Family Medicine, and Epidemiology and Community Health, are dedicated to improving health care and access to care for all patients regardless of race or economic circumstances. A large part of their research underscores the public health burden associated with disparities in health status.
According to Smith and Woolf, minorities experience higher death rates for a multitude of reasons, including adverse social conditions such as poverty and inadequate education.
“More than 800,000 people lost their lives due to racial and ethnic health disparities in the past 10 years,” says Smith. “America is becoming increasingly diverse and will be majority-minority by 2050.”
According to Woolf, for every dollar spent by Congress to develop breakthrough treatments, only one penny is allocated to ensuring that the treatments are delivered to eligible patients.
The larger message behind their research is that society’s efforts to improve health outcomes need to focus on improving the fidelity with which health care is delivered.
