Dr. David Ansell looked at health disparities in the U.S.

CHICAGO — Speaking earlier this month at the Health Equity Summit presented by Kearney and Chain Drug Review, Dr. David Ansell brought the vexing problem of persistent health disparities in the U.S. into sharp focus. Based in part on his extensive experience delivering care to members of underserved communities, Ansell pointed to a startling fact — life expectancy in this country varies dramatically depending on where a person resides.

Dr. David Ansell

Ansell has spent his entire career in Chicago, first at Cook County Hospital, then at Mount Sinai, and now at Rush University Medical Center, where he is senior vice president for community health equity. An individual who resides in the Loop — an affluent neighborhood that doubles as the city’s central business district — can expect to live to age 85. Just a few miles to the west along Ogden Avenue, life expectancy falls to 72 in the North Lawndale section. (Prospects for longevity are even lower in Washington Park, to the south of the Loop, where the average life span does not exceed 69 years.)

Long experience treating patients from disadvantaged communities prompted Ansell to examine the root causes of health disparities: “How could such suffering and low life expectancies coexist alongside some of the finest health care systems and some of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the nation?” he asks in The Death Gap: How Inequality Kills, a book originally published in 2017 and revised in 2021. “Was this inevitable? How have public policies, laws and real estate practices contributed to multigenerational poverty and high death rates in certain communities?”

The complex web of economic, social and political factors that result in health disparities led to the creation of West Side United — an organization comprised of health care providers, businesses, nonprofit groups, government agencies, faith-based institutions, educators and residents — to address structural barriers to health equity and underlying societal factors.

The wide-angle lens that Ansell and his colleagues at West Side United apply to health disparities was also in evidence at the Kearney/Chain Drug Review Health Care Summit, which brought together a broad range of stakeholders, including several leading pharmacy operators and other retailers, physicians, payers, public officials, and policy experts. Kristin Williams, executive vice president and chief health strategy and policy officer at Hy-Vee, opened the program by providing an overview of the multi-pronged approach that the Midwestern food/drug combination store chain is taking to support the health and well-being of urban and rural customers in its eight-state operating area. The scope of the company’s involvement — which includes community and specialty pharmacy, emphasis on healthy food and guidance about good nutrition, telehealth and sustainable business practices — illustrated the substantial opportunity that forward-thinking retailers have to positively impact the lives of their customers.

During sessions throughout the daylong summit, panelists examined some of the themes touched on by Williams. Areas of concentration included what should be done to support healthy communities, challenges in women’s health, the importance of proper nutrition and the need to expand access to quality health care.

Insights shared by speakers, subsequent dialogue with audience members and informal exchanges throughout the day all pointed to widespread acknowledgment of the seriousness of the health disparities currently afflicting American society. The U.S. dedicates $4.3 trillion a year to health care — almost double the per capita spending of Germany, which is second in the world by that measure — but lags behind most other advanced countries by such indicators as life expectancy, maternal and infant mortality, and incidence of chronic disease. Clearly, much work needs to be done to alter the status quo, and those in attendance at the event expressed their readiness to step up to the challenge.

In the coming weeks, Chain Drug Review and Kearney will share — via video and print — some of the most compelling content from the summit. The hope is that the material will stimulate thinking and encourage discussion throughout retail pharmacy and the broader health care industry about achieving the elusive goal of health equity. Sustained engagement by providers across the continuum of care as well as other entities that have an impact on social determinants of health is a prerequisite for enhancing the well-being and increasing the life expectancy of people who live on the West Side of Chicago and in similar disadvantaged areas across the U.S.