CHEST Health Equity Task Force: Call for Members

CHEST is forming a Health Equity Task Force to develop a comprehensive understanding of the impact that health disparities have on the practice of chest medicine. We’re looking for members to join and help us complete a health disparities environmental scan in pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine. 

Under the leadership of Task Force Chair, Nneka Sederstrom, PhD, FCCP, the environmental scan will:  

• Strengthen understanding of how health disparities emerge across pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine in North America 
• Identify key barriers contributing to those disparities and where clinicians and institutions can exercise agency to create change 
• Understand how health disparities shape the practice of medicine (and how the practice of medicine shapes health disparities) 

SUBMIT YOUR APPLICATION

If you are interested in being considered for the Task Force, please fill out the submission form and upload a current CV, as well as a statement of interest that discusses:  

• Your motivation for applying to join the Task Force and how your membership would be an asset to the project 
• Your experience and/or knowledge on health disparities and health inequities (including any experience working directly on public health, policy, quality improvement, and/or research directly related to health disparities) 
• Your knowledge and experience regarding specific health issues that impact historically excluded communities  
• Your affiliation with or representation of historically excluded communities  

Application deadline: Wednesday, March 27 

Qualifications for Task Force membership

To be considered for the Task Force, applicants must meet the following qualifications: 

• Be in active clinical practice 
• Demonstrated expertise/interest in health equity within pulmonary, critical care, or sleep medicine and/or disparities in the medical profession 
• Engagement in activities intended to support historically excluded communities¹ 
• Ability to amplify the experiences of patients who face disparities in pulmonary, critical care, or sleep medicine 
• Familiarity with health equity literature 
• Connection to community groups, patient advocacy organizations, or other relevant groups 

To ensure that the Task Force reflects a diversity of lived and learned experiences, CHEST will consider a broad range of factors during the application review process, including (in no particular order): 

• Content area expertise and experience  
• Gender  
• Ability  
• Practice location 
• Practice setting/employment type 
• Provider type 
• Race and ethnicity 
• Years in practice 

Time commitment 

The health disparities environmental scan is planned to begin in spring 2024 and conclude in December 2024 with final deliverables being presented shortly thereafter. Task Force members will be expected to attend regularly scheduled Task Force meetings and complete work between meetings, as needed. 

¹“Historically excluded communities” includes but is not limited to: women, racial or ethnic communities, low-income individuals and/or families, justice-affiliated individuals, rural individuals and communities, people with disabilities, LGBTQ+ individuals and groups, immigrants and refugees, senior citizens, individuals and families with limited-English proficiency, or combinations of these populations.