Health Equity & Inclusion

Conquering the cognitive impact of infectious disease.

This interfaculty, interdisciplinary, interinstitutional team has substantial experience developing evidence-led policy and has been working closely together for the past 2 years to establish the Western University response to COVID-19.

Team experience includes declared values in public health policy, practice, and research, including social justice and health equity (Maxwell Smith), social inequality and social determinants of health, utilizing quantitative methodologies to drive policy recommendations and decision-making surrounding health (Kate Choi), application of statistics, decision analysis, and systems analysis to health policy problems, with specific expertise in the economic evaluation of clinical diagnostics and novel therapeutics, resource allocation, and infectious disease policy (Lauren Cipriano), the global education emergency caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has disproportionately affected marginalized groups (Prachi Srivastava), and the proper limits and role of law in promoting public health and preventing chronic disease (Jacob Shelley). This team also includes an Indigenous Research Team focused on social determinants of health problems faced by Indigenous peoples. The Indigenous Research team consists of Indigenous female scholars with connections to tribal/band communities in Canada and the United States. Specifically, Kimberly Huyser is an enrolled tribal member of the Navajo Nation; Katherine Collins is an enrolled member of the Métis Nation of Saskatchewan; Michelle Johnson-Jennings is an enrolled tribal member of the Choctaw Nation; Sofia Locklear is an enrolled member of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina; and Aggie Yellow Horse has deep family ties to the Navajo Nation in Arizona, USA.

The Health Equity and Inclusion Team is conducting a longitudinal study to assess the long-term consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic for social health, specifically long-term inequalities in health and social wellbeing, including the development of chronic conditions like cognitive decline. This team will also address how inequalities in pandemic response measures are contributing to long-term inequalities in health and socioeconomic wellbeing, and the extent to which the pandemic has amplified social inequalities by race/ethnicity, Indigenous affiliation, immigration experience, socioeconomic status, age, and rural/urban residence.