As we celebrate and honor Black History Month, now is a great time for health solution developers and funders to revisit their commitment to equitable health innovation. There are many opportunities to learn and grow in your understanding — and there is a wealth of information, resources, and thought leaders in the In Full Health Learning & Action Community.

Throughout the industry, incredible work is being done to support healthtech founders of color and to better understand racial disparities in health and health innovation.

Whether you’re interested in a specific topic or want to learn something new, here are 5 resources related to health disparities and equity in the health innovation pipeline to help you start.

---

Check out these other Resources to Learn & Take Action.

---

2021 CEO Blueprint For Racial Equity — Policy Link

Keywords: racial equity, health care leadership

In 2020, PolicyLink, FSG, and JUST Capital created the CEO Blueprint for Racial Equity to guide corporate leaders beyond their diversity and inclusion commitments and statements of support. In this 2021 update, they have developed a more robust tool for navigating the path to racial equity that can help leaders prioritize and break through expected (and unexpected) roadblocks within their spheres of influence — their workplaces, their communities, and society — to have a lasting impact.

---

Read the CEO Blueprint in the Resource Library.

---

Identifying Evidence-based Strategies to Increase Diversity Among Funded Health Tech Founders: Landscape Analysis — HealthTech DEI

Keywords: venture capital, healthtech, health innovation

This landscape analysis presents an overview of existing interventions from around the world
intended to address the lack of diversity among funded health tech founders by looking at
both health care and analogous industries. For the purpose of this landscape analysis,
diversity, equity & inclusion (DEI) is focused on Black, Latinx, and female founders.

---

Meet Kathryne Cooper and Juan Espinoza in this Q&A with IFH.

---

Increasing Diversity in Clinical Research and Addressing Health Inequities — AdvaMed

Keywords: clinical research, clinical trials, health equity

Generating evidence on medical technologies is critical for regulation, market access, and clinical adoption. AdvaMed partnered with Meharry Medical College on a workshop series convened during 2021 that focused on increasing diversity in clinical trials. Bringing together a diverse group of interested stakeholders, participants discussed the need for diversity in clinical research — as well as the methods to achieve it. Based on the insights from these workshops, this report outlines some of the potential considerations and possible approaches to help research sponsors improve the inclusion of under-represented groups in clinical research.

---

Meet DeChane Dorsey in this Q&A with IFH.

---

Principles for Advancing Equitable Data Practice — Urban Institute

Keywords: data, data bias, technology

Research organizations, governments, philanthropy, and nonprofits have expressed strong interest in using data to support the well-being of communities. But too few people recognize that data is not neutral. The decisions people make about which data matter, what means and methods to use to collect them, and how to analyze and share them are important but silent factors that reflect the interests, assumptions, and biases of the people involved. This report argues for an intentional focus on thinking critically about the creation and use of data. The Urban Institute believes data can be a tool to advance equity and well-being, but achieving that requires an explicit recognition that those factors affect the validity and legitimacy of data-informed decisions.

---

Read the Principles in the Resource Library.

---

The Maternal and Infant Mortality Crisis — The Business Group on Health Podcast

Keywords: health disparities, maternal mortality

A recent report from the National Center for Health Statistics showed that during the first year of the pandemic, the number of deaths among pregnant women and new mothers rose 14%, with Black women most affected. In this episode of the Business Group on Health Podcast, The Business Group on Health speaks with Stacey D. Stewart, President and CEO of the March of Dimes, about the maternal health crisis and solutions to address this challenge, both in the policy arena and the corporate setting.

---

Meet Ellen Kelsay from The Business Group on Health.

---