AltaMed Institute for Health Equity

Vision

Improve the health and wellbeing of the AltaMed community by working collaboratively with patients, their families, and community partners to address root causes of health disparities.

Since 1969, AltaMed Health Services has been committed to health equity as a matter of social justice. As one of the largest nonprofit federally qualified health centers (FQHC) in the U.S., AltaMed provides a comprehensive range of primary care, dental, specialty care, and other services for medically underserved communities in Los Angeles and Orange Counties.

The AltaMed Institute for Health Equity (the Institute) was established in 2017 to identify and remove barriers to optimal health for AltaMed patients and their communities. By generating shared learnings and replicable models, the Institute aims to have a regional, national, and international impact on populations who are disproportionately harmed by a complex array of social injustices such as poverty and discrimination.

To achieve this aim, the Institute strives to engage the community through health equity research and policy translation, graduate and undergraduate medical education, and evidenced-based programs.

Our Quadruple Aim

• Improve population health
• Enhance care experience for individuals
• Improve health care affordability
• Realize joy in work

Research Focus

• Study the various forms of social structures, resource distributions, interventions, and health care services act to alleviate or exacerbate health and health care inequities,
• Disseminate and implement the latest health equity research findings
• Inspire a culture of research across AltaMed through joint projects, presentations, trainings, and mentorship

Priorities

• Partner with patients and community to promote fair and just health outcomes
• Develop a culture of learning that advances social justice and health
• Lead systems change to provide resources and opportunity in areas of highest needs
• Collect, analyze and share meaningful data that values our patients lived experiences and informs systems and policy change
• Lead health equity initiatives to make the healthy choice the easy choice

Partnerships
These are some of the collaborations that allow the Institute to develop effective, sustainable, practical, and replicable consensus strategies.

• Adventist Health White Memorial Medical Center
• Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science
• Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles
• California State University, Los Angeles
• Kaiser Permanente’s Southern California Department of Research and Evaluation
• South East Los Angeles Collaborative
• University of Southern California
• University of California, Los Angeles