This talk will focus on the evolution of understanding of health inequalities and their impact on health outcomes for adults with diabetes. It will provide new understanding of social determinants of health and highlight how upstream structural factors drive downstream social determinants of health and health outcomes in adults with diabetes. Finally, the talk will discuss promising interventions to address social needs in adults with diabetes and novel policy-focused studies that have the potential to address upstream structural drivers of poor health outcomes.

Dr. Leonard E. Egede is a general internist, a tenured Professor of Medicine, and the Inaugural Milwaukee Community Chair in Health Equity Research at the Medical College of Wisconsin. He is also Chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine and Director of the Center for Advancing Population Science. As a nationally recognized health disparities researcher, Dr. Egede's research focuses on developing and testing innovative interventions to reduce and/or eliminate health disparities related to race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and geographic location for chronic medical and mental health conditions. Dr. Egede is currently the Principal Investigator (PI) of five National Institutes of Health R01s and has published over 450 manuscripts documenting how factors at the individual, provider, and system levels influence health outcomes. His work has also examined the impact of structural racism, social determinants of health, and social risk on health outcomes; advanced research on effectiveness and safety of telehealth and telemedicine as a modality for delivering effective clinical care; and improved understanding of the role of behavioral economics on health and health outcomes for individuals with chronic disease. 

Funded by the National Institute for Diabetes, Digestive, and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Department of Defense, and Veterans Affairs, Dr. Egede has developed and tested innovative interventions to improve health outcomes for high-risk racial and ethnic minorities. He mentors general internal medicine fellows, interns, postdoctoral fellows, and junior faculty members. Dr. Egede was a member of the National Advisory Council of the Robert Wood Johnson Physician Faculty Scholars Program and was the PI of a K24 career development award from NIDDK that focused on mentoring women and minority investigators. He works to involve individuals from populations underrepresented in medicine in research during their high school and early undergraduate years. Dr. Egede has also undertaken global efforts to provide care and empowerment of indigenous communities.