Forever on the Path: How We Can Continue to Pave the Way for the Future of Health Justice (Inaugural Charity Scott Endowed Lecture)

Speakers

Daniel E. Dawes, Meharry Medical College

Streaming Media

Document Type

Video

Date

1-30-2025

Institutional Repository Citation

Daniel E. Dawes, Forever on the Path: How We Can Continue to Pave the Way for the Future of Health Justice (Inaugural Charity Scott Endowed Lecture), Center for Law, Health and Society Events 148 (2025)
https://readingroom.law.gsu.edu/health_events/148

Comments

Bio

Daniel E. Dawes, is a widely respected healthcare and public health leader, health policy expert, educator, and researcher who serves as Senior Vice President of Global Health and Founding Dean of the School of Global Health at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee. He is the author of two groundbreaking health policy books, 150 Years of ObamaCare and The Political Determinants of Health, both published by Johns Hopkins University Press. Dean Dawes is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and an elected fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine. He serves as an advisor to The White House on health equity initiatives, an appointed member of the CDC’s Advisory Committee to the Director where he co-chairs the CDC’s health equity working group, and the NIH’s National Advisory Council for Nursing Research.

Learning Objectives

1. Identify historical moments in American history that have helped to set the stage and shape how health inequities are instigated, perpetuated, and addressed. 2. Clearly define the political/legal determinants of health and how they are linked to health disparities and inequities. 3. Understand how political/legal determinants of health are related to and impact the social determinants of health. 4. Understand the political/legal determinants of health framework and how it can be leveraged to advance more equitable health laws and policies and better health outcomes. 5. Understand current and future trends enabling or hindering efforts to address health equity in communities across the United States. 6. Understand how lawyers and other professionals can mobilize political/legal determinants to improve health outcomes in under-served, under-resourced, and vulnerable communities.

Description

As global citizens committed to achieving health equity and health justice, it is important to expand the boundaries of our knowledge relative to the determinants and drivers of health. Effectively eliminating health disparities requires a holistic approach. It requires understanding the root causes of these problems, the structural barriers to equity, and how historical and contemporary health inequities are connected. It has been over two decades since the National Academy of Medicine released its groundbreaking report, Unequal Treatment, which highlighted striking disparities in health status and health care, and yet today there is a struggle to operationalize and actualize health equity in the United States. As we strive to realize a healthier, equitable and inclusive society, leaders must understand how the social and political (incl. legal) determinants of health have worked overtime in the United States and the current and future trends that will hinder or advance health justice

Resources

1. The Politics of Population Health https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10126954/ 2. Structural medicine: towards an economy of care https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)00937-5/fulltext 3. The Future of Health Equity in America: Addressing the Legal and Political Determinants of Health https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1073110518821976 4. Applying a Health Equity Lens to Evaluate and Inform Policy https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6604770/ CLE Request 1 hours of general CLE ($4)