The costs of inequality

Ebonie Woolcock, a Harvard Medical School instructor in obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive biology, works today not far from where she grew up in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood. A physician at the Bowdoin Street Health Center, Woolcock is fighting a personal battle to close the health gaps that result in America’s poor and minority communities getting less access to care, poorer quality of it, and, ultimately, worse health.

Education may be the key to solving broader American inequality, but we have to solve educational inequality first. Harvard’s Ronald Ferguson, director of The Achievement Gap Initiative at Harvard University, says there is progress being made, there are encouraging examples to emulate, that an early start is critical, and that a lot of hard work lies ahead. But he also says, “There’s nothing more important we can do."

Harvard Medical School’s Family Van reaches Boston’s underserved neighborhoods in the most direct way possible: by driving there. The van’s screening and referral services help bridge health inequalities by connecting local residents with a health care system that may otherwise seem distant and inaccessible.