AMA Journal of Ethics

This group of paintings portrays beauty and strength among front-line clinicians in a hectic emergency room during the COVID-19 pandemic. Head-to-toe personal protective equipment covers their fear. Vibrant colors and strange perspectives help question the reality through which they and their patients lived.

This oil painting of a crowded elevator carriage suggests our numerous shared uncertainties, risk of exposure to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and lack of knowledge about our and others’ risk of death from COVID-19. Personal protective equipment is uncomfortable, but it’s less uncomfortable, perhaps, than knowing our safety depends so much on others’ behaviors.

Aligning merit-based approaches with holistic approaches and equitable candidate evaluation can improve admissions processes, support learners, and improve patient care.

The health status of the US population remains poor when compared to that of similar nations. There are lessons for us from Cuba.

The Flexner Report marginalized schools that produce more than their fair share of physicians confronting inequities in US responses to COVID-19.

COVID-19 reminds us that hand hygiene is key to individual and public health, but many of us cannot access clean water.

Recent popular interest in Henrietta Lacks has prompted interest in better engaging AA nurses and communities.

Failure to robustly integrate health equity content into health professions curricula leads to student frustration and missed opportunities.

One health system’s development and validation of inequity measures across patient groups demonstrates an approach that could be nationally scalable.