The Science is Evolving
In a recent editorial addressing the future of health equity, I wrote,
“How does one reconcile the dissonance between need and decree? Between anguish and mandates? Between avoidable death and cost savings? Science. The currency that matters most is the knowledge of disproportionate risk, inequitable disease burden and the universal cost, both in human toll and in expendable dollars. Indeed, there are costs incurred in doing this work but greater costs to bear by overlooking, silencing, or minimizing this work. Yet the greatest cost is this: If the consequences of history are ignored, the events of ignominy will occur again, widening inequities and deepening the misery so many experience of wholly and totally unacceptable outcomes.“
While advocacy and awareness certainly help advance the cause of health equity, it is science that ultimately determines what works and how it works. And though observational science further defines the recalcitrant inequities that stubbornly persist and delineates the broader expanse of those experiencing disease, no gains are possible without a better-informed understanding, evolution of testable hypotheses and incontrovertible evidence of effective interventions. With the intention of pursuing the science of health equity, the Feinberg School of Medicine Office of Health Equity launched the The Scholars Exchange.
In this new forum, we have created intentional space to curate and then lift scholarship that does more than observe inequity; instead, it engages directly, seeks root causes and postulates new theorems. The quarterly series highlights early‑career and rising faculty whose work reflects a commitment to advancing health equity through science, research and implementation, with the understanding that health equity scholarship is most meaningful when it helps shape a more just and equitable health system. And health equity scholarship should be— and in this institution is indeed—on par with all other iterations of scientific discovery.
The early sessions set a clear and important tone. For instance, November,'s session, led by Marquita Lewis, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Medical Social Sciences, invited us to consider rural cancer health not as a margin issue, but as a framework for understanding collaboration across institutions, sectors and communities. During the January session, Nilay Shah, MD, MPH, assistant professor in the Division of Cardiology, shared the cardiovascular disease experience of South Asians to illustrate that cardiovascular health is shaped not only in exam rooms, but in neighborhoods, policies and lived experiences, and that prevention demands attention to people, places and how populations live and work together (i.e., the ecology of health equity).
Most recently, Jenny Jia, MD, MSc, assistant professor in the Department of Medicine, presented a session thatfocused on food insecurity as a fundamental driver of health disparities. This is not just about hunger–it's also about deficits in critical nutrients needed for healthy development and healthy lives. Her discussion emphasized that access to healthy food is inseparable from health itself and highlighted community‑centered approaches that connect research, policy and practice to support sustainable change.
This new dialogue opens up important opportunities for innovative discovery at the intersection of rurality, geography and food insecurity. The Scholars Exchange will continue to foster these conversations and collaborations. This is how we address the future of health equity—and how Northwestern contributes in a meaningful way.
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Vice Dean, Health Equity