Combating Structural Inequities — Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Clinical and Translational Research

The Covid-19 pandemic has rendered U.S. racial, ethnic, and social health inequities too stark to ignore. In the face of continuing disparities in health risk and staggering inequities in Covid-19 morbidity and mortality, the scientific workforce must confront the<br />structural racism that has shaped not only the pandemic but also centuries of disparate health outcomes. The health crisis and its sociopolitical context have underscored how ill prepared our health care and public health systems are to mitigate inequities. We believe that if the clinical and translational research enterprise is to help resolve current and future health crises and ensure that all people in the United States, including members of historically disenfranchised communities, have the opportunity to live healthy lives, it must shift paradigms and begin to center diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in its work.