Policy
Building support for data-driven policy and practice changes that give every community the opportunity to be healthy and thrive.
A community’s health is deeply connected to the way its laws, regulations, and institutions support the health of everyone in it. In many communities across the country, the system is rigged in ways that concentrate power and money away from working people, at the expense of their physical, mental, and economic health.
The AAMC Center for Health Justice gathers input from AAMC member institutions, experts, community members, and organizations from across the country about policies that support a fair shot for everyone to be healthy. With that vital input, we provide important insight to federal agencies that work toward and fund programs that make communities healthier. The Center’s research codevelops the kinds of evidence that can be incorporated into policy and practice change at all levels — organizational, local, state, and federal — to create genuine health opportunity for all.
Open Public Comment Opportunities
The federal government provides opportunities for individuals and organizations to comment on issues related to health equity research and policy.
AI-Enabled Optimization of Early-Phase Clinical Trials Pilot Program
Response deadline: June 29, 2026
Modification of Certain Terminology in Title 21
Response deadline: July 6, 2026
Regulation for Federal Financial Assistance
Response deadline: July 13, 2026
Promoting Youth Participatory Action Research Approaches in Prevention Research
Response deadline: July 16, 2026
Policy Updates from the Center
The Center recommended changes to the OMB's race and ethnicity standards based on input from the researchers, clinicians, and community leaders of AAMC CHARGE.
The Center, with AAMC CHARGE and the Multisector Partner Group, made recommendations to increase public participation in federal activities.
The AAMC and the Center made recommendations for future directions in the NIH's SGM health research.
The letter expresses strong reservations about the NIMHD's decision to not designate people with disabilities as a health disparity population.
The first major update to Dept. of Health and Human Services Section 504 in nearly 50 years will improve health care for people with disabilities.
The Center responded to a request for information from the National Institute of Minority Health Disparities with input from AAMC CHARGE.
Two comment letters shaped by AAMC CHARGE members' expertise recommend strategies for advancing environmental justice on the federal level.
The Center recommended robust collaboration with other agencies implementing the revisions to the White House's revised race and ethnicity data standards.
AAMC CHARGE members contributed to the center's letter to the OMB on its proposed updates to federal race and ethnicity categories.
To inform the feedback to NICCIH, AAMC CHARGE weighed in on the factors and social determinants they believed have the greatest impact on health,