Maiers Authors New Health Equity Checklist for Research

Michele Maiers, DC, PhD, MPH, Executive Director of Research and Innovation at NWHSU, authored a new article in Ethics, Medicine, and Public Health. Maiers collaborated on “Health equity checklist for research” with leaders from institutions across the U.S. and Canada.

“Most of the authorship team has a background in complementary and integrative health (CIH),” shared Dr. Maiers. “It was great to see the CIH community show this level of thought leadership in a space that impacts all research.”

Filling a Gap in Clinical Research

The multidisciplinary team worked together to fill a gap they identified in the literature. “Health equity is a topic of increasing responsibility within the research community, much as it is in healthcare in general,” explained Dr. Maiers.

While checklists exist to help researchers ensure quality for a wide range of study designs, none exist to guide scientists in creating health equity in their research.”

“Researchers have an ethical imperative to focus on issues relevant to populations bearing the highest burdens of illness and inequities,” states the article.

“To address the gap in structured guidance for incorporating health equity principles in health-related research, this study aims to introduce a comprehensive health equity checklist developed by the RAND Research Across Complementary and Integrative Health Institutions (REACH) Center.

Looking Forward

According to Dr. Maiers, the team designed the checklist “with an eye towards more representative research and a greater impact on communities.” The goal? To shift standards of practice, not just in CIH research, but across healthcare research more generally. “We hope this checklist is applied broadly to all types of clinical research across conditions and patient populations of interest, and incorporated as a standard of practice for research moving forward.”