Health Equity

Health equity focuses on ensuring that every individual has a fair opportunity to attain and maintain their highest level of health. It requires a commitment to studying the many and diverse factors that influence health, including biological, social, and economic drivers, and to taking action to remove obstacles such as inadequate scientific understanding, poverty, discrimination, and lack of access to quality healthcare services. Health equity efforts at YSM emphasize the importance of scientific research in identifying and addressing the root causes of health disparities, ensuring that interventions are evidence-based and effective.

For 25 years, WHRY has remained at the forefront of advancing health equity efforts. We do this by remediating the gap in studying women’s health and sex differences that influence health outcomes. WHRY has initiated needed research as well as awarded over $5.6 million dollars in pilot funds to Yale faculty to investigate causes of high morbidity and mortality for women. New external grant dollars of $110 million resulting from the data of these pilots studies alone allows investigators to pursue their findings.

WHRY’s Committee

Our WHRY Advisory Council, which includes members of our Yale and New Haven communities, has convened a committee whose goals are to ensure that:

• the Advisory Council benefits from different voices and perspectives
• our words and communications uses language that is culturally sensitive and creates a sense of belonging for all
• there is an awareness of health disparities and WHRY’s efforts to respond

WHRY’s health equity research efforts are coordinated with the school’s Office for Health Equity Research, directed by Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith. This collaboration builds on ongoing joint efforts by OHER and WHRY to generate research that serves under-studied groups and the intersection of these populations.

amplifyHERscience is a program within Yale Ventures dedicated to supporting and promoting entrepreneurial pursuits. It fuels momentum through broad representation in innovation and entrepreneurship while actively supporting faculty in the Yale community.