Populations with diabetes can successfully manage their condition if they have regular access to primary care along with access to quality food, physical, and social environments that support healthy lifestyles. Lack of safe, convenient, and affordable transportation options can make it difficult for low-income populations to access these resources. A research team led by Georgia State University will use a randomized trial to test several low-cost ways of improving transportation opportunities for low-income urban diabetic patients, including providing public transit vouchers, ride-share credits on Lyft, a cash benefit, or mobility counseling compared with usual medical care alone.

For many mental health conditions, effective programs to restore health and social functioning require collaborative efforts that go far beyond the healthcare sector. Individuals who are newly diagnosed with psychosis often require a carefully coordinated mix of specialty services including pharmacotherapy, behavioral counseling, educational services, vocational supports, and supportive housing options. Despite the existence of mental health parity laws, public and private health insurance plans often do not cover the full array of services required by patients, creating gaps and delays in care.

Our program officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation contributes to setting Systems for Action program priorities. She also reviews and recommends applications for funding.

Impact studies examine the impact of a novel system alignment strategy on relevant measures of health and wellbeing for affected populations. These studies build on pilot studies confirming the feasibility and acceptability of the systems alignment strategy and use rigorous research methods to...

The Systems Alignment Innovation Hub (SAIH) team manages a nationwide project launched in November 2022 to help medical, social service, and public health providers in low-income and Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities dismantle inequities and improve health and well-being for all. SAIH is a...

Restorative Community Solutions (RCS), works to restore, empower and heal historically divested communities in the San Francisco Bay Area through individual, group, and community coaching. The Equity Capacity Building Grant will contribute to their systems alignment challenge focused on building a...

This study, funded as part of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Systems for Action research program, tests a holistic admissions approach in health sciences education at Salt Lake Community College and its impact on the BIPOC healthcare workforce. Higher education admissions have always been fraught with systematic racism, given the equity gaps existing within the standardized tests relied upon in the process. The holistic admissions model involves including representatives from the medical system in the admissions interviews and taking into account a students lived experiences with adversity.