Although they've long been a terrible reality for millions of patients in the United States, health disparities have really only become a hot topic only within the last 20 years or so. In 2003, the Institute of Medicine (now the National Academy of Medicine) published "Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care." The landmark report provided evidence that minority groups in the U.S. had less access to health care, frequently received lower-quality care, and suffered worse outcomes. "Unequal Treatment" received significant attention for shedding light on a widespread but often unacknowledged problem.
