Venture firm OurCrowd is partnering with the World Health Organization to launch a $200 million global health equity fund.

Chapel Hill, N.C.-based UNC Health appointed Nicole Mushonga, MD, as its system executive director for health equity Sept. 15.

About 50,000 Jynneos monkeypox vaccines will go toward populations that are less likely to be vaccinated and face barriers to access, according to the CDC. 

Around a quarter of Americans say insurance companies should be required to cover gender-affirming care, Pew Research Center found. 

Baltimore-based University of Maryland Medical System has committed $14 million to address disparities including economic development and food insecurity in its service areas. More than half its investees are Baltimore-focused, and 75 percent of are Black-led or Black- and woman-led. 

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Rhode Island said Sept. 13 it has designated 21 healthcare facilities across three providers as "LGBTQ Safe Zones," or providers with services and staff trained specifically for LGBTQ patients.

The Gilead Foundation awarded $20 million Sept. 13 to an inaugural group of 13 organizations working to advance health through education equity.

YouTube has partnered with the Kaiser Family Foundation to launch a new program to help nonprofit organizations create educational videos about health inequities in mental health, maternal care and health access.

A lack of investment in mental healthcare has taken nearly 117,000 lives and cost the U.S. $278 billion from 2016 to 2020, a Sept. 8 report from the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at Atlanta-based Morehouse School of Medicine found.

Some transgender patients are denied reimubrsements for gender-affirming care by insurers because of diagnostic coding, according to a Kaiser Health News report. 

The American Medical Association's Women Physicians Section and the AMA Foundation have selected the recipients of their annual research grants program, according to a Sept. 7 news release. 

Health equity has been on the forefront of Joyce Sackey's, MD, mind since a very young age. Growing up in Ghana, she observed an uneven distribution of and access to healthcare, which stimulated both her drive to help others and an interest in medicine.

The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and the Arkansas health department are partnering to address unconscious biases in healthcare workers, using a $600,000 grant from the CDC. 

Here are six health equity studies that Becker's has covered since June 24: 

Three researchers from the Brown School and the School of Medicine at Washington University in St. Louis received a $6.1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health Sept. 1 to study maternal health.

Health systems play an important role in helping Black communities build wealth, according to a Sept. 1 analysis in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Advancing health equity is a top priority for nearly all health systems, but making progress can be complicated. Becker's Hospital Review recently spoke with Melissa Sherry, Vice President of Social Care Integration at Unite Us, about challenges and opportunities related to adopting health equity services at scale.

Here are six health equity investments over $10 million that Becker's has covered since July 25:

HHS, through the Health Resources and Services Administration, announced on Aug. 29 an investment of more than $20 million for initiatives aiming to improve maternal and infant health. 

Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Novant Health and the Novant Health Foundation invested $25.5 million since January 2020 toward community impact and health equity initiatives across North Carolina, according to an Aug. 29 news release.