News

November 5, 2024By Physicians for a Healthy California Chief Health Equity Officers

Over the past decade, there has been a rapid rise in the number of California health care organizations hiring chief health equity officers (CHEOs) – individuals tasked with stewarding the critical work of advancing health equity. 

Physicians for a Healthy California (PHC) – the philanthropic arm of the California Medical Association (CMA) – recently published "The Long Road Toward Health Equity: Early Insights from California’s Chief Health Equity Officers,” a report that seeks to understand the responsibilities, priorities and experiences of California’s rising CHEOs. 

PHC’s report, published with support from the California Health Care Foundation, provides a  valuable snapshot of the characteristics of those who have assumed senior health equity roles and provides insight into the development and implementation of the infrastructure and partnerships necessary to identify, target and improve health equity.  

PHC surveyed 22 CHEOs (or individuals who hold equivalent positions) and interviewed 15 additional individuals to illuminate the challenges they face in advancing health equity within their organizations. The findings offer insight into the characteristics of CHEOs and their organizations, the context within which they are attempting to address disparities, and what they believe are the keys and obstacles to success. 

Most CHEOs understand that achieving true health equity will take years, if not decades – and it is vital that expectations be tempered by a clear recognition of the complexity and magnitude of the problem. Patience – especially at this earliest stage – is essential as CHEOs work to build the necessary health equity infrastructure within their organizations and communities and encourage the adoption of a health equity lens across all organizational activities. Ultimately, they emphasize success will be a world in which the role of the CHEO is no longer necessary.

Read the full report here.