Advancing Health Equity, Thirty Years Following the Heckler Report

By Eve J. Higginbotham, SM, MD

This month, the Department of Health and Human Services celebrates National Minority Health Month and more specifically acknowledges the 30th anniversary of the Margaret Heckler's Report on Black and Minority Health.

This month, the Department of Health and Human Services celebrates National Minority Health Month and more specifically acknowledges the 30^th anniversary of the Margaret Heckler's Report on Black and Minority Health.[1] This report clearly "documented the existence of health disparities among, ethnic minorities in the United States and called such disparities "an affront both to our ideals and to the ongoing genius of American medicine."[2]  In this groundbreaking report, six causes of higher levels of mortality in blacks compared to whites were noted: cancer, cardiovascular…