Advancing Health Equity - Massachusetts Health Quality Partners

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The COVID-19 pandemic shined a harsh spotlight on the racial and ethnic disparities in our healthcare system. While researchers have long been aware of health disparities affecting historically underserved communities for many noncommunicable diseases such as breast cancer, diabetes and asthma, the pandemic brought inequities of all kinds into mainstream consciousness.

MHQP is uniquely positioned to help advance all aspects of the health equity agenda through shared measurement and collective action. While we understand that this issue is deeply-rooted in longstanding and systemic biases, we are determined to help eradicate inequities in patient experiences and outcomes, so that all patients have an equal opportunity to be as healthy as possible.

Here is a list of the posts on this site related to MHQP’s health equity activities:

Health Equity Lens Brings New Focus to MHQP’s Clinical Guidelines

(January 2021)

Two decades ago, in 2001, MHQP issued the first statewide Adult and Pediatric Preventive Care Recommendations and Immunization Guidelines in Massachusetts. At that time, providers were receiving a different set of clinical guidelines from each of the health plans they worked with. Recognizing this situation as both confusing and wasteful,

From Pandemic Fix to Permanent Fixture: How to Ensure Telehealth Lives Up to Its Full Potential

By Barbra G. Rabson

(November 2020)

Telehealth utilization quickly soared in Massachusetts in the early days of the pandemic, not just because it filled an obvious need as a way for providers and patients to connect when face-to-face interactions were not possible, but also because Governor Baker issued an order requiring insurers to

Listen Up, America. Now is the Time to Address Racism in our Healthcare System

by Brittney Gedeon, Rising Junior and Presidential Scholar at Boston College and MHQP Summer Intern

(June 8, 2020)

The senseless death of George Floyd at the hands of four police officers in Minneapolis has shocked and outraged millions of people throughout the country. As a nation, we should condemn the racial injustices we see in policing and

MHQP Statement in Support of Protests

(June 8, 2020)

Dear Friends,

We at MHQP would like to add our voices to the resounding chorus of supportive messages in solidarity with the peaceful protesters seeking lasting change against longstanding systemic racism in the United States. We hear you. We see you. We support you.

Now is a time to listen to the voices of our fellow Americans whose cries

Now Is the Time to Get Telehealth Right

By Barbra G. Rabson

(April 2020)

Amid all the horror and hardship of the COVID-19 pandemic, maybe something good will emerge on the other side of it for the healthcare system. Now is our chance to finally get telehealth right.

Before the pandemic struck, MHQP was working with a distinguished panel of experts to