Let’s take 2 steps forward

Abstract

On May 25, 2020, George Floyd was killed by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota triggering a modern-day civil rights movement within the Black community. Simultaneously, states were beginning to implement widespread shutdowns to contain the COVID-19 virus-a virus that contributed to a 3-year downturn in life expectancy for Black and Hispanic men. In this age of continuous news and social media, the fragility of the lives of marginalized racial and ethnic groups was on full display. While these health disparities were well known to investigators entrenched in health equity work, there had been a general apathy concerning these issues within the greater community, including in science. More recently, there has been increased interest in racism globally and a public apology from the National Institutes of Health for underfunding the field, supported by a $100 million commitment to disparities research. [1,2] As investigators rush to take advantage of this new funding, some would even say that health disparities research is now "en vogue."The health disparities facing vulnerable populations seeking liver transplantation have similarly received increased attention in recent years. In fact, in this issue of Liver Transplantation, there are 2 articles exploring this topic. Henson et al [3] set out to provide a use case in how to identify local area-level social determinants that pose barriers to referral for liver transplant evaluation. Within North Carolina, they identify areas with a low density of GI providers, food insecurity, poor access to technology, and overall area-level deprivation. They demonstrate that these areas have the lowest rates of referral for liver transplant evaluation, yet the highest liver-related mortal-