Episode #180 Ableism in American Healthcare with Megan Morris, PhD, MPH

Creating a New Healthcare

We’re excited to share this discussion with Megan Morris, PhD, MPH in the first episode of the 8th season of Creating a New Healthcare! Dr. Morris is currently an Associate Professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine in the Department of Medicine at the University of Colorado, Anschutz. In her work, she focuses on provider-level and organizational factors that affect the quality of care delivered to patients with disabilities.

In this episode, Dr. Morris shares her personal experience of caring for an uncle with a disability and the challenges that led her to dedicate her career to research and advocacy for this community. This story was also captured in a 2023 NEJM article she published.

In this interview, you’ll hear Dr. Morris address the prevalent biases and misconceptions surrounding the 27% of Americans living with some form of disability. She points out major shortcomings in our healthcare delivery system which focuses on fixing the individual rather than addressing the barriers people with disabilities face. She also shares some specific ways in which healthcare delivery can better accommodate patients with disabilities.

To try and address the paucity of information and available resources, Dr. Morris and her colleagues created the Disability Equity Collaborative. Coming soon to this site are implementation guides for things like starting an accessibility program at your organization.

Our discussion is personal, eye opening and largely based on the research that Dr. Morris and others have conducted. Her life’s work is beyond inspiring. I encourage you to visit the Disability Equity Collaborative website to learn more!