Improvement Area: Health Equity

Health Equity

Improving health and health care worldwide requires a focus on equity — equity of access, treatments, and outcomes. We will achieve health equity when each individual has a fair opportunity to achieve their full health potential.
There Is No Quality Without Health Equity

There Is No Quality Without Equity

IHI strives for a future free of health inequities and we commit our tools, talents, and teams to this essential human pursuit. We collaborate with organizations, communities, and individuals to accelerate the elimination of inequities in health and health care access, treatment, and outcomes. Together, we can make the improvements needed to achieve health equity.

Systemic, avoidable, predictable, and unjust differences in access, treatment, and outcomes between individuals and across populations should be particularly troubling for quality improvers. These types of differences are often referred to as inequities or disparities. 

Inequities are the worst type of unwanted variation in a system — variation linked to the complicated history and reality of racism, classism, sexism, ableism, ageism, and other forms of oppression. Quality improvers have a role to play and tools to use in health care systems and communities to end inequities.

Improvement areas education

Enhance Your Knowledge and Skills to Improve Health Equity

Training and Professional Development

Explore learning opportunities focused on improving health equity

IHI Open School

Build knowledge and skills to improve health equity with IHI Open School online courses

Improving Health Equity

Free Resources and Tools to Support Your Work to Improve Health Equity

Health Equity Resources

Explore tools, white papers, publications, insights, and other resources to support your efforts to improve health equity

Improving Health Equity

Health Equity Initiatives

Rise to Health Coalition

A national coalition for equity in health care that brings together individuals and organizations to transform health care through coordinated and collective action

Recommended Resources

Defining the Role of the Health Equity Officer: Guidance for Health Systems
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IHI Health and Health Care Consulting

Expertise in Improving Health and Health Care

Providing the best experience and outcomes for your patients, workforce, and communities is important to you — it's important to us, too. In partnership with your organization, IHI provides expertise, methods, tools, and best practices to address current challenges while also building capability and systems to continuously improve and excel, both today and in the future.
IHI Consulting Services