Health inequity is a pervasive issue that affects communities worldwide. The barriers to adequate healthcare, socioeconomic factors, and systemic disparities often result in disproportionately adverse outcomes for individuals from marginalized communities. So, how do we as a community recognize and address these challenges?
Our expert panelists addressed topics including:
Watch the recording for invaluable insights on disparities in pain care and learn strategies to promote health equity for all.
Kate M. Nicholson, J.D. is the founder and Executive Director of the National Pain Advocacy Center, a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing the health and human rights of people with pain. She previously served as a civil rights attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice for eighteen years and is a nationally recognized expert on the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
Nicholson’s personal experience with intractable pain after a surgical injury that left her largely unable to sit, stand, or walk for two decades led her to advocacy. She has spoken at TED, universities, and think tanks, offered solicited testimony in state legislatures, and briefed the U.S. Congress. In her work with NPAC, she has changed policy and laws, including in the U.S. Supreme Court.
Her work has been featured in the New York Times, Guardian, Washington Post, NBC News, Scientific American, Newsweek, ACLU’s At Liberty, and elsewhere. She is a frequent opinion writer for such publications as the Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Washington Monthly, Hill, STATnews, and MedPage Today.
Nicholson served as an appointed member of the Opioid Workgroup of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is a member of the Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee (IPRCC) (which oversees all federal pain research), and was provisionally appointed to the Advisory Council of the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. She was a Senior Fellow at Dartmouth College and is a graduate of Harvard Law School.
Dr. Mallampalli is the Executive Director at the Alliance of Sleep Apnea Partners (ASAP), a nonprofit patient-oriented organization dedicated to promoting and advocating to make sleep apnea a national priority. She is also the President and founder of the Institute for Women’s Health Strategies focused on applying data driven strategies to advance the science of women’s health.
As a trained biomedical scientist, Dr. Mallampalli brings a unique perspective to women’s health – from science and research to policy and advocacy. As a subject matter expert in women’s health, Dr. Mallampalli has brought attention to knowledge gaps in science and policy in several chronic disease areas that affect women including chronic pain, sleep health, cardiovascular health, musculoskeletal health, and autoimmune disease. Previously, Dr. Mallampalli served as the senior scientific advisor at HealthyWomen and the Association of Migraine Disorders. While at HealthyWomen, she brought national attention to women and chronic pain by conducting a two-day summit focused solely on the topic of women and chronic pain in 2019.
Prior to HealthyWomen, Dr. Mallampalli served as the Vice President of Scientific Affairs at the Society for Women’s Health Research (SWHR). She has worked at the National Institutes of Health as a Health Policy Analyst and obtained her Post-doctoral Fellowship at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She earned her PhD at the University of Utah in Human Genetics and received a Master of Sciences with a concentration in Biochemistry from Osmania University in India.
Dr. Tamara Baker is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is also the Associate Director of Research for the Mental Health Equity Program in the Psychiatry department at UNC. Dr. Baker received her MA in Clinical/Community Psychology from Norfolk State University, a PhD from Penn State in Biobehavioral Health, and completed her postdoctoral training at the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health as a Paul B. Cornely Postdoctoral Fellow. She joined UNC’s Department of Psychiatry in 2020. Prior to her current appointment she was a Professor at the University of Kansas (KU) in the Department of Psychology and Director of KU’s Gerontology Program.
Dr. Baker is a 2019 Mayday Fellow, which is established to encourage pain experts to assume public leadership and advocacy roles, and an appointed member of the US Department of Veterans Affairs Geriatric and Gerontology Advisory Committee under the Secretary of Veterans Affairs. She is the Editor-in-Chief of Ethnicity & Health and Editor Emeritus of Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine.
Dr. Baker is formerly the Gerontological Society of America’s (GSA) Secretary and has served as Chair of the Committee on Minority Issues in Gerontology. She is a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America (GSA), founder and co-convener of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Collaborative Interest Group, and past chair of GSA’s Behavioral and Social Sciences (BSS) section. Her background in Gerontology, Psychology, and Biobehavioral Health has evolved into an active research agenda that focuses on understanding the behavioral and psychosocial predictors and outcomes of chronic pain and pain and symptom management among older adults from historically marginalized populations. She also examines health disparities and inequities in pain management, and access and availability to pain management resources among older adults. Broadly, her research includes health disparities and health equity, cultural diversity/sensitivity, and social determinants of health.
Dr. Samina Ali is a pediatric emergency physician (Edmonton, Alberta) and a Professor of Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine (University of Alberta). Dr. Ali is a national award-winning researcher, mentor, educator, and leader. She is currently Chair of Pediatric Emergency Research Canada (PERC), Research Director for Pediatric Emergency Medicine (University of Alberta), and the Western Canadian hub lead for Solutions for Kids in Pain (SKIP). Her research program concerns better treatment of children’s acute pain, with a focus on responsible prescribing of opioid analgesia, management of medical procedure-related pain, and more recently, equitable access to pain care. She chose this focus because she wanted to provide better care to the children she was treating in the emergency department.
Dr. Ali has published over 190 articles in this area and has had her works featured in local and international media and podcasts. She has studied multiple technologies, including humanoid robots, VR, and tablets for distraction during painful procedures.
Presented in partnership with the National Pain Advocacy Center.
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