Achieving Equity in Medical Care Access in the Next Evolution of Health Care for Historically and Contemporarily Medically Underserved Patient 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 & Services".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2023) | Viewed by 418
Special Issue Editor
Interests: digital health; health equity; community-engagement; linguistically diverse populations; health literacy; health disparities
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Achieving health equity for all patients, especially those that are in communities that have been historically and contemporarily underserved, will require knowledge of the multilevel barriers to effective access to medical care. Patients from racial/ethnic minority, low income, and linguistically diverse communities have faced disparities in access to care and also consequential disproportionate poor health outcomes. The COVID-19 pandemic only served to amplify these disparities; we need to not only to correct the course after the traumas of COVID-19, but also provide a path to medical access that is far better than the health system we had in place before COVID-19. New knowledge urgently calls for a better and "new normal." Therefore, new strategies for expanding access to care, and improving health care quality, for the most vulnerable patients, are needed. This Special Issue plans to give an overview of the most recent advances in the field of and their applications in diverse communities.
Potential topics include, but are not limited to:
- Role of Community-Engagement (and other models that are rooted outside of health care settings) to improve medical care access and population health
- The impact (and continuing effects) of COVID-19 on access to care
- Conceptual Frameworks for medical care access among unserved communities-- specifically with a focus on marginalized racial/ethnic patients and patients who are linguistically diverse (primary language is non-English)
- Use of data science (AI/ML) to focus on gaps in access to care, for specific populations
- Role of technology for patient populations, and making health technology more patient-centered for uptake and use (especially focusing on unserved populations)
- Role of changes in policy, insurance expansion, and other legislation to promote health equity in medical care access
- Expanding the safety net
Dr. Alejandra Casillas
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. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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 2500 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
- community engagement
- underserved populations
- access to care
- limited english proficient
Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue
- Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
- Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
- Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
- External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
- e-Book format: Special Issues with more than 10 articles can be published as dedicated e-books, ensuring wide and rapid dissemination.
Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.
