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Health Equity and People-Centered Systems: Meeting Needs and Creating Opportunities...
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Health Equity and People-Centered Systems: Meeting Needs and Creating Opportunities for Diverse Communities

A special issue of Healthcare (ISSN 2227-9032). This special issue belongs to the section "Health Policy".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 December 2025 | Viewed by 2726

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Umair Majid

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 1A1, Canada
Interests: qualitative research; health equity; health systems; health policy; people-centered care
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The pursuit of health equity and people-centered systems has never been more urgent. As healthcare evolves, so must our collective efforts to ensure that diverse communities not only have their needs met but also benefit from new opportunities for growth and engagement. We are pleased to invite you to submit your scholarly work to our Special Issue, titled “Health Equity and People-Centered Systems: Meeting Needs and Creating Opportunities for Diverse Communities”, which is dedicated to exploring access, equity, and patient, people, and community empowerment.

This Special Issue aims to advance the discourse on strategies, methods, and policies that address disparities, foster cultural competence and sensitivity, and enhance community-driven interventions. By drawing on a breadth of research and practice insights, we seek to uncover evidence-based solutions aligned with the journal’s commitment to promoting equitable, comprehensive care.

We welcome submissions of original research articles, reviews, and case studies that explore, but are not limited to, the following: social determinants of health, health disparities, community-based participatory approaches, culturally responsive care models, policy interventions for marginalized groups, and the role of digital technologies in bridging care gaps. Through rigorous investigation and thoughtful analysis, our goal is to provide transformative findings that promote people-centered practices, research, strategies, and policies.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Umair Majid
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Healthcare is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • health equity
  • people-centered care
  • patient-centered care
  • social determinants of health
  • health disparities
  • community engagement
  • cultural competence
  • cultural sensitivity
  • policy

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Review

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24 pages, 357 KB  
Review
Cultural Humility Training in Mental Health Service Provision: A Scoping Review of the Foundational and Conceptual Literature
by Mayio Konidaris and Melissa Petrakis
Healthcare 2025, 13(11), 1342; https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare13111342 - 4 Jun 2025
Viewed by 1943
Abstract
Background: Ongoing access and equity concerns for culturally diverse populations in mental health warrant a shift from cultural competence to cultural humility training. This review aimed to systematically assess the breadth of conceptual and training literature in peer-reviewed publications drawn from PsycINFO, CINAHL [...] Read more.
Background: Ongoing access and equity concerns for culturally diverse populations in mental health warrant a shift from cultural competence to cultural humility training. This review aimed to systematically assess the breadth of conceptual and training literature in peer-reviewed publications drawn from PsycINFO, CINAHL plus, Google Scholar and Scopus, from 2007–2018, utilizing cultural humility as the key search term and its relevance to service provision. Methods: This method utilized a five-stage scoping review framework. Results: Results were that a total of 246 publications were extracted. Following employing an abstract review method and removing duplicates, this resulted in a full-text review of 56 publications. The emerging themes included the following: culturally informed conceptual frameworks; culturally diverse training approaches; racial inequalities in mental health services; culturally informed national and international perspectives; race and international transcultural mental health. Conclusions: Conclusions were that including cultural humility principles in service provision and training enables greater self-awareness towards racial bias and negative cultural stereotypes at both practice and organizational levels, ultimately aimed at enhancing mental health service provision by mitigating the structural barriers encountered by service users. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Health Equity and People-Centered Systems: Meeting Needs and Creating Opportunities for Diverse Communities)
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Other

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16 pages, 579 KB  
Systematic Review
Addressing the Leadership Gap: A Systematic Review of Asian American Underrepresentation in Orthopaedic Surgery
by Ahmed Nadeem-Tariq, Matthew Michelberger, Christopher J. Fang, Jeffrey Lucas Hii, Sukanta Maitra and Brock T. Wentz
Healthcare 2025, 13(16), 1987; https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare13161987 - 13 Aug 2025
Viewed by 359
Abstract
Background: While Asian American individuals are well represented in medical schools in the United States, their advancement to senior positions within the field of orthopaedic surgery is disproportionately low. This underrepresentation not only limits diversity in leadership but also constrains the development [...] Read more.
Background: While Asian American individuals are well represented in medical schools in the United States, their advancement to senior positions within the field of orthopaedic surgery is disproportionately low. This underrepresentation not only limits diversity in leadership but also constrains the development of people-centred systems that reflect the needs of an increasingly diverse patient population. Objectives: This study systematically examines Asian American representation across the orthopaedic surgery professional pipeline, focusing on disparities between training-level representation and advancement into both faculty and leadership positions., and framing these gaps as a health equity concern. Methods: A comprehensive literature search for peer-reviewed original research articles was conducted via PubMed, EBSCO Open Research, Wiley Online Library, Google Scholar, and ScienceDirect. The potential articles were screened against prespecified eligibility criteria, and risk of bias was assessed using the Newcastle–Ottawa Scale (NOS). Data were then systematically extracted and analysed. Results: This analysis included 20 research articles investigating Asian American representation in orthopaedic surgery. The results demonstrated an underrepresentation of Asian Americans in orthopaedic leadership positions despite improvements in training programme representation with subspecialty clustering in adult reconstruction and spine. Asian American surgeons were less likely to occupy academic and leadership roles than their non-Asian American peers. Across studies, underrepresentation was consistently observed, with effect size estimates indicating a substantial disparity (e.g., pooled risk difference = 0.19; 95% CI [0.12, 0.28]) in those studies reporting comparative outcomes. Similarly, while Asian Americans in residency programmes increased, this growth did not translate proportionally to faculty advancement. In contrast, Asian women face compounded barriers, particularly in subspecialties like spine surgery. These inequities undermine workforce inclusivity and may reduce cultural and linguistic concordance with patients. Conclusions: Despite having strong representation in orthopaedic training programmes, Asian Americans are disproportionately absent from leadership positions. This poses a challenge to equity in surgical education and patient-centred care. To promote equity in leadership, focused mentorship, clear promotion processes, and institutional reform are necessary to address structural barriers to career advancement, this will reflect the diversity of both the workforce and populations served. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Health Equity and People-Centered Systems: Meeting Needs and Creating Opportunities for Diverse Communities)
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