Gastroenterology Learning Network
Jun 29, 2026 · 25 min · 11 segments
Gut Check: Philip Okafor, MD, on Health Care Disparities in Gastroenterology by Gastroenterology Learning Network
Philip OkaforGuest
Brian LaceyHost
And I'm going to leverage on that question to talk about two other terms, including health equality and health equity.
So going back to your initial question of health disparities, health disparities are essentially differences between in outcomes or access to healthcare experienced by typically subpopulations of our demographic or the country where you live or community where you live.
And importantly, this are typically driven by social, economic, environmental differences within those populations.
And also important to measure that potentially these disparities are preventable.
So that's the easy way to understand just differences in the health outcomes or access to health in general between demographics of our population.
And I talked about health equity and health inequality, because I think it's important to emphasize those terms, too.
So health equality is giving everybody the same amount of resources to succeed.
But while health equity means, you know, tailoring those resources to what that particular demographic needs.
An example I give is, for instance, you do gastroenterology, you see patients with severe constipation.
If you look at your practice and you find that different patients with severe constipation have different symptoms.
Then you can tailor your resources to say, okay, for patients who, for instance, don't have English as a primary language, you want to have an interpreter in clinic.
You want to have your instructions in the language they prefer so that they can better complete their tests, understand the medication so that the outcomes are the same for everybody.
And I'm going to leverage on that question to talk about two other terms, including health equality and health equity.
So going back to your initial question of health disparities, health disparities are essentially differences between in outcomes or access to healthcare experienced by typically subpopulations of our demographic or the country where you live or community where you live.
And importantly, this are typically driven by social, economic, environmental differences within those populations.
And also important to measure that potentially these disparities are preventable.
So that's the easy way to understand just differences in the health outcomes or access to health in general between demographics of our population.
And I talked about health equity and health inequality, because I think it's important to emphasize those terms, too.
So health equality is giving everybody the same amount of resources to succeed.
But while health equity means, you know, tailoring those resources to what that particular demographic needs.
An example I give is, for instance, you do gastroenterology, you see patients with severe constipation.
If you look at your practice and you find that different patients with severe constipation have different symptoms.
Then you can tailor your resources to say, okay, for patients who, for instance, don't have English as a primary language, you want to have an interpreter in clinic.
You want to have your instructions in the language they prefer so that they can better complete their tests, understand the medication so that the outcomes are the same for everybody.
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