Dear Teammates,

As we mark Juneteenth as an organization for the first time, we are reminded that proclamations of emancipation and independence do not directly afford equity, dignity, and other fundamental rights, including health and safety. A recent report from the Chicago Department of Health shows that while all of the city's race-ethnicity groups experienced decreases in life expectancy from 2019 to 2020, Black and Latinx Chicagoans experienced the largest decreases. Alarmingly, the city's life expectancy gap between people who are Black and those who are white has increased to a full decade. In Chicago, home of Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute, we’re witnessing in real-time the effects of disparities in our community. More than a century after the first Juneteenth Celebration, we continue to be reminded of the immense work that needs to be done to make our communities healthier for everyone.

Access to health care is one of our core values, but it involves so much more than just getting in the door. In order to provide equitable access to healthcare, we must ensure the context of care is just, respectful, and tailored to the diverse patients and families we serve and that the tools and delivery of care are appropriate for all. So, equitable access to healthcare must also be grounded in equitable access to research studies that lay the foundation for our care delivery models, diagnostics, therapeutics, and devices. Inequities in healthcare access are exacerbated when these healthcare tools are subject to biases in representation, such as by race, ethnicity, social status, and other factors during their discovery, development, validation, and implementation.

Medical research has a terrible historical role in anchoring and often perpetuating a marked lack of trust in the medical field among Black and Brown communities. Black and Brown patients are far less likely to be represented in research trials, and without representation in research, they are less likely to have healthcare tools that have been developed for them and shown to work for them

With these and other impacts of systemic health inequities in mind, our responsibility as researchers is to ask how we can best address the healthcare needs of all populations, including those from underrepresented or disenfranchised communities. One critical way is to ensure more inclusivity in our research studies. We are fortunate to work alongside the talented and passionate faculty and staff of the Patrick M. Magoon Institute for Healthy Communities, who are devoted to building trust and facilitating partnerships in Chicago and beyond to identify health-related problems, as well as the social and structural influencers that contribute to the disparities in health outcomes.

One of our main priorities at Manne Research Institute is to build an inclusive framework by prioritizing inclusivity and diversity in our research. The Katz and Manne Research Institute Summer Scholars Program is one way that we are fostering connections between research and the community. This year’s group of nine budding scientific superstars is one of the most diverse to date, and many come from communities underrepresented in medicine and science. Through this outstanding summer program, we are elevating more inclusive and diversity-sensitive scientists who represent the different populations we’re trying to reach. This, in turn, means that members of these populations might better see themselves in our scientists and connect in a way that builds must-needed trust.

Whatever research project you are conducting, I hope you’ll continue to advance a more inclusive research environment for underserved communities. I am optimistic that we can close the gaps in health inequities with the right focus.