Exploring and Addressing Healthcare Inequalities in Marginalized Communities
A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). This special issue belongs to the section "Health Care Sciences".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 March 2026 | Viewed by 116
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
In the widely differing healthcare systems across the globe, inequalities in care contribute to unequal health outcomes. Often, the negative impact of these inequalities is seen most clearly within communities that are marginalized either by the healthcare system specifically or at a broader societal level. While marginalization carries an implication of harm and exclusion, healthcare “at the margins” can be a place of innovation towards more effective care and a more promising future.
This Special Issue invites contributions to advance our collective understanding of how marginalization manifests in real-world health(care) contexts, as well as what can be implemented to mitigate its harms and advance new forms of care that better meet humanity’s needs. The issue will adopt an inclusive interpretation of factors that may drive marginalization, such as lack of geographic or financial access to care, societal discrimination against specific groups, the ongoing influence of historical context or trauma, and/or misalignment between system services and population or ecosystem priorities, including presumptive norms of what healthcare can or should provide. Papers reporting interventions that effectively address or transform the negative outcomes of marginalization from health(care), and the lessons learned from such efforts, are especially welcome. Possible topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following: enhanced participation of marginalized communities in health service design; changes to payment models or services with the goal of decreasing exclusion; redefinitions of the scope of healthcare to align with marginalized value systems or self-care practices; and/or identification of novel factors contributing to marginalization (for example, the role of new technologies or medical treatments in improving or worsening marginalization).
Dr. Anaïs Tuepker
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- health equity
- health disparities
- healthcare access
- health systems redesign
- social exclusion
- social determinants of health
- marginalization
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