Moving the Needle towards Health Equity: A Policy-Driven Transdisciplinary Approach to Address Health Disparities for Vulnerable Communities.

Objectives:Policymakers, health services researchers, community leaders and health care delivery organisations are key stakeholders in addressing economic, environmental, social and systemic barriers to health equity in vulnerable communities. However, they often operate in silos, leaving gaps in efforts to effectively address health disparities. It is important to develop a new approach to influencing responsive health equity–focused policies.Design:An innovative, collaborative model is outlined that leverages strengths across these four stakeholders to reduce inequity in target populations. The model brings together undergraduate and graduate student researchers in a front-end policy partnership with elected officials based on mutually agreed-upon commitment to address local health disparities impacting the policymaker’s constituency.Setting:Students and faculty at Arizona State University partnered with the office of a Phoenix City Council member representing a constituency largely comprised of low-inc...