Academic Leadership and Health Equity in Otolaryngology

For patients & families
Doctors who specialize in ear, nose, and throat care have come together to address a troubling pattern: patients from different backgrounds don't always receive the same quality of care or have the same health outcomes [e13230-c2, e13230-c4]. In February 2022, six medical centers started the Health Equity Collaborative to study these differences and find solutions; the group has since grown to about 20 programs [e13230-c1, e13236-c10]. Their work focuses on two main areas: conducting research to understand why disparities exist, and recruiting more doctors from underrepresented communities into the specialty . One early success came from a children's hospital in Dallas, where families who didn't speak English were struggling after their child's tonsil surgery—once the hospital improved communication in families' preferred languages, emergency room visits and worried phone calls dropped significantly [e13230-c5, e13236-c5, e13236-c6]. The collaborative is now working with the American Academy of Otolaryngology, which received a three-year grant to fund studies on health disparities [e13230-c8, e13236-c19]. Doctors are learning to ask deeper questions when patients don't follow treatment plans—sometimes the issue isn't forgetfulness but distrust, cost barriers, or unclear explanations [e13230-c12, e13236-c29, e13236-c30].