There’s no single fix to closing gaps in health care outcomes, says Dr. Maureen Bell, physician director of community impact at Vituity, where she leads efforts to identify and eliminate health disparities.
“There are multiple things that we have to work on,” Bell says, including increasing diversity in the healthcare workforce and educating providers on strategies for providing equitable care and considering the “whole patient.”
Bell spoke with Movement Is Life’s Dr. Joyce Knestrick about how systemic bias, lack of representation, and community barriers shape the care patients receive.
She said inequities persist because too often, health systems focus narrowly on medical interventions while overlooking social factors — such as affordability, access, transportation, and the environments in which people live.
The 2025 Movement Is Life Annual Summit will take place on Friday, Nov. 14, 2025, in Washington, DC. This year’s theme is “Combating Health Disparities: The Power of Movement in Community.” Registration is now open. Visit movementislifecommunity.org for more information.
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This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.
Maureen Bell: Interestingly, when we talk about health equity, you know, there is no one thing. There are multiple things that we have to work on. We have to work on provider education, so that every provider, regardless of what you look like, at the point you’re delivering care, you’re delivering equitable care. You’re taking the whole patient into and you’re taking the whole patient into consideration all the barriers they have to encounter to get to you, the barriers they’ll continue to face after they leave you. So there is no one thing that we do, but we have to keep working at this in multiple ways, we have to make sure that we’re increasing the diversity of our healthcare workforce, that, you know, our patients have more providers that look like them, because we know that, you know, there’s better adherence to care plans, there’s better access, trust when patients feel comfortable with their providers.
Joyce Knestrick: Hello, you’re listening to the Health Disparities podcast from Movement is Life. I’m Dr. Joyce Knestrick, a family nurse practitioner and member of the Movement is Life steering committee. Systemic bias in healthcare creates barriers to unequal outcomes, to truly build equitable systems, to understand how unconscious bias and the lack of diversity affect patient care. Today, we’re talking with someone at the forefront of that work to learn more. I’m joined by Dr. Maureen Bell. She’s an emergency medicine physician with over 20 years of experience, formerly on faculty at Howard University and now part of Vituity and national group that cared for 12 million patients last year across 27 states and DC, she leads efforts to identify and eliminate health disparities. Dr. Bell, welcome to the Health Disparities podcast. Thank you so much for being here. Really appreciate your time.
Bell: Thank you, Joyce for having me on today, this is such a critical topic, and it’s such a critical time to talk about health disparities, and what we can all do to eliminate those disparities.
Knewstrick: Could you first start by telling us a little bit about yourself and what brought you into this work?
Bell: So I’ve been an emergency physician for over 20 years, and what has been clear to me throughout my journey in medicine is that regardless of the care that we deliver at the point that patients present to the emergency departments, some patients do worse than others, and that has a lot more that is a lot more nuanced than patient compliance. It has to do with access. It has to do with affordability, and it has to do with the other things that impact their health, you know, the barriers they have to overcome to attend follow up appointments. It has to do with, you know, access to the things that we may prescribe outside of medications. We may say, you know, we want you to work out more. We want you to eat healthier foods. But those things aren’t accessible. They aren’t always accessible to patients equally.
Knestrick: So I’m really interested in more about the activity and how it addresses disparities at your organization. Really interested in it because I grew up in a housing project and my parents never drove so I understand I’ve got active care and disparity issues. So this sounds like a group that’s really working hard on it. Tell us more.
Bell: So Vituity is a physician organization that’s been in existence for 50 years. We’re in 27 states, in Washington, DC, multiple specialties. Started out as emergency medicine, but we’re in multiple specialties, and we cared for almost 12 million patients last year. Now why is that important? It means that we understand that health is not just at the point of care delivery. It’s not just within the hospital walls. It means that we have to take the patient’s whole existence into consideration when we are caring for them. You know, our mission at vitality is to improve lives, and that’s not just in a transactional manner. It means that we want to improve lives, not just while you’re in front of us and it’s a doctor patient encounter. But we want to see healthier communities. We want to truly improve the lives of our patients and their communities.
Knestrick: That’s really interesting. What program elements have you found to be the most effective at moving your program and even healthcare provider diversity forward?
Bell: So interestingly, when we talk about health equity, you know there is no one thing. There are multiple things that we have to work on. We have to work on provider education, so that every provider, regardless of what you look like at the point you’re delivering care, you’re delivering equitable care, you’re taking the whole patient into and you’re taking the whole patient into consideration all the barriers they have to encounter to get to you, the barriers they’ll continue to face after they leave you. So there is no one thing that we do, but we have to keep working at this in multiple ways. We have to make sure that we’re increasing the diversity of our health care workforce, that you know, our patients have more providers that look like them, because we know that, you know, there’s better adherence to care plans. You know, there’s better access trust when patients feel comfortable with their providers. So, you know, there are multiple things that we do. Provider education is one thing that we’re doing in the here and now, but when we look at long term, we’re going into the communities. You know, through our foundation, vitality cares Foundation, we’re working to bridge that gap. We work with community partners to do screenings in the communities. We’re creating scholarships and, you know, mentorship opportunities through organizations like the student National Medical Association. So it really is a multi pronged approach.
Knestrick: Could you give us two, maybe one or two examples of how you partner with community groups to collaborate with outpatient centers to help promote equity?
Bell: So, you know, I think one that stands out in my memory. You know, through our Vituity Cares Foundation, we partner with the Magic Johnson Foundation, and last summer, we actually did a back to school health fair where we were able to provide back to school physicals for more than 100 kids. But as part of that, we also did community health screenings, and one of the other organizations we partnered with was a Justin Carr Foundation. And with that, we were able to, in addition to doing the traditional screenings that kids needed to go back to school, we were able to actually do EKGs, and through the Justin Carr Foundation, they were actually able to do echocardiograms for like these student athletes, because that is one way that we can identify kids who may be at risk for sudden cardiac death, who are student athletes, and when we think about things like this, which they may exist in communities, but a lot of times that means that, you know, parents have to take a day off work, or just kind of the accessibility in terms of appointments, that’s not something that’s always easily attainable for families. So by by partnering with a community organization, showing up on a Saturday, being able to do this and provide resources to the kids their backpacks for back to school, that is one way that we’re really partnering with community organizations and trying to bridge that gap that we see in underserved communities.
Knestrick: Well, that is an excellent example of partnering with the community. Even though most clinicians are pretty well intentioned, we still have biases. Can you talk a little bit about unconscious biases?
Bell: So bias is something we all have. Bias is something we all have and and it is not like the awareness that we have bias is the first step, and just being able to acknowledge that we do have a bias and then be intentional. Okay, how do I overcome this bias? Is this my bias that’s making me think this might not be anything? Or is this my bias that’s making me think this may be something when it isn’t? So just. Being aware that we have this bias and just having that humility to know that we do not know everything else about someone’s lived experience or their culture, that is the first step to being able to show up as a provider and deliver equitable care.
Knestrick: So in order to address issues of unconscious bias, maybe even racial and healthcare bias among medical training, how? What would it take to do that more broadly?
Bell: So again, it is education and just acknowledging that we’re not going to get it right. Every time that we are going to make mistakes, we are going to make mistakes, and it shows up in sometimes the most subtle ways that we’re not aware of, but at the point you become aware of it, just acknowledge that it is there, and be sincere in your apology and say, I apologize. I made an assumption. Ask the patient, I think just being human about this interaction that we do not know everything, we do not know everything, and that goes a long way in building that trust with your patient, because ultimately, the most critical aspect of a provider patient relationship is trust.
Knestrick: Absolutely, absolutely trust is important. So, the research shows that racial concordance between patients and providers provide outcomes in minoritized communities. Can you tell us more that is and how does it affect patients, and why does it really matter?
Bell: So, I think when we talk about, so, let’s, let’s kind of define what racial concordance is like. You know, we talk about health equity, we talk about health disparities, but I think what we often forget is, as a provider, when you show up to deliver care to a patient, like, who is the patient who is in the room with you? And how does that patient perceive you, as well as, how do you perceive the patient? We talk about bias from, you know, the provider side, but from the patient side, how do they perceive you? Do they feel like you understand them? You understand their lived experience? Do they feel like they’re able to communicate with you in a way that you get them without them having to explain every nuance? And so that is where racial concordance comes in when you have a provider and a patient who have similar racial or ethnic backgrounds, and there’s this shared understanding where not every nuance has to be explained. And so it helps trust get built quicker. It doesn’t mean that it has to be present, but it definitely accelerates the ability to build that trust between the patient and the provider. And what that means is, when your patient trusts you, they’ll open up about symptoms they have that they probably wouldn’t, they’ll open up about challenges they may have kind of related to their social situation, which they probably won’t otherwise. And they’ll also be more open to sharing things that they’re not quite comfortable with. You know, in minority communities, there’s been a history of medical mistrust, and so sometimes, when you recommend preventive screenings, they’re kind of on the fence. They’re not sure if it’s the right thing for them. Even with some medications, they may be concerned about side effects, but if they’re not willing, if they don’t trust you enough to kind of open up and disclose that these are things that I’m worried about or I’m concerned about, then you don’t even have the opportunity to address those during the encounter. And that makes a difference in whether patients follow up on preventive screenings. It makes a difference in whether they’re compliant with their care plans. It makes a difference in whether you as a provider, can give them that next level of information they may need, even with something as simple as diet, if culturally, you don’t understand what somebody’s diet looks like and. And you know, you just want to give them generic recommendations, saying, based on your diagnosis, this is what we think you should have. But if we’re not aware of what their typical diet is, or culturally, what their diet is, I mean, we’re not, we’re not really able to deliver on making sure that patient gets the best outcome they can.
Knestrick: I think that’s a really good point, because dealing with my population, sometimes they just really don’t have the money, or they’re eating in soup kitchen. And how do you design a meal plan for someone in those areas. So how? How does increasing physician and other provider disparities or diversity enhance trust and improve the quality of care for marginalized communities?
Bell: So again, it kind of goes back to what we talked about with having people who have that lived experience and who are able to bring that voice to the room. You know, when we look at, you know, decisions that are made for certain populations or or certain communities, are there representatives from that community in spaces where those decisions are being made, you know, and as we look at wanting to have healthier communities and better outcomes for all our communities, it means that having that representation from those communities will help us get there. It’s not a silver bullet, but it certainly is a part of the solution.
Knestrick: If you could enact one policy change at the state or federal level to accelerate equity in emergency medicine or maybe in healthcare in general, what would it be and how would it transform healthcare?
Bell: I think we’re we live in a country that has a wealth of resources, but those resources are not evenly distributed, And I think if every provider sees equity as part of their responsibility, as part of their as part of you know the commitment that you made when you became a doctor, to take care of your patients, to recognize that equity is an integral part of this patient outcomes is an integral part of it. It’s not just writing a prescription, you know, it’s not just showing up in a white coat, but it is seeing a patient like the whole patient. You know that I think a common myth is, you know, people think that patients want providers that just look like them. The truth is that patients want providers who treat them with compassion, respect and communicate with them. Now, having a provider that looks like you is a small part of it, and so the ideal is that we have a health care system where every patient goes to an encounter and feels respected, understood and cared for.
Knestrick: Well. Thank you. I think that is so important for everybody’s practice, but particularly for people who feel marginalized or invulnerable populations. Well, we’ve really covered a lot of ground today. Dr Bell, thank you so much for sharing your expertise and your passion for advancing equitable care. Is there anything I haven’t touched on that you wanted to say?
Bell: I think we’ve covered a lot of things, but again, I just want to leave everyone with: We all have a part to play. We all have a part to play. And so that means, if you’re a provider, you know, making sure that you see your patient regardless of what you look like, see who’s in. A room with you and to approach that patient with compassion cultural humility and to ensure that you’re doing your part in helping that patient achieve their best health outcome, you know, but also the other part is let us continue to support and mentor the next generation of healthcare leaders we’re entering into a space where it’s becoming more and more difficult for some populations to achieve that dream, but let us all do our part in mentorship, in making sure that that we’re there to To support and sponsor the next generation of health care providers.
Knestrick: Thank you so much. That is so powerful supporting the next generation of health care providers so important for our country’s health I really appreciate your time and expertise again. Thank you so much for this lively conversation. For those who want to learn more, we’ll include links to Vituity’s Health Equity initiatives and Dr. Bell’s work in our show notes. Thank you.