When
Dr. Earl Stewart
thinks about health equity, he thinks about patients who delay care because they can’t take time off work, who are seniors silently battling chronic disease in food deserts and who live in communities hit hard when summer heat bears down on the South.
“Health equity,” he said on
The Weekly Check-Up
podcast, “means making sure every person, regardless of ZIP code, income or background, has access to the care they need delivered with dignity.”
Dr. Stewart is the medical director of health equity at Wellstar and an internal medicine physician. He’s at the forefront of building a more just healthcare system rooted in listening, proactive outreach and community-based care. His work is redefining what community health looks like in practice.
Health equity starts with access
One of the biggest misconceptions about health equity is that it’s only about insurance coverage. But that’s just the starting point.
“Access doesn’t mean only having a clinic nearby or having insurance,” Dr. Stewart said. “It means that care is affordable, culturally competent, geographically reachable and provided in a way that meets people where they are.”
In Georgia, especially in urban and rural areas, barriers to healthcare can have many forms: long travel times to the nearest physician, language barriers, gaps in preventive care and social factors like food insecurity and housing instability. Each of these affects whether patients seek care at all and what happens when they do.
That’s why Dr. Stewart is helping lead efforts at Wellstar to address care beyond hospital walls, including thinking outside the traditional healthcare model.
Food as medicine for chronic disease
Health happens everywhere, not just in exam rooms. For example, conditions like
diabetes
and
hypertension,
wo diseases that disproportionately affect ethnically minoritized and low-income populations, are directly linked to access, or lack of access, to healthy food options.
Wellstar is working to reduce the health impact of food insecurity and chronic disease across the state through:
“If you don’t have access to healthy foods, your ability to control your blood pressure or manage your blood sugar is already compromised,” Dr. Stewart said.
By addressing food insecurity head-on, Wellstar isn’t only treating illness—we’re preventing it through community investment and education.
Mobile health removes barriers
For patients who can’t easily get to a clinic or pharmacy, Wellstar is bringing the clinic to their neighborhoods. Through mobile health programs, including
pop-up clinics and food markets, patients can get screened for high blood pressure, pick up healthy groceries or receive preventive education.
“These programs reflect a shift in strategy—from reactive to proactive and from system-centered to
patient-centered care,” Dr. Stewart said. “This is PeopleCare in action.”
“Mobile care gives us the chance to address
healthcare access in a tangible way,” he added. “It removes barriers before they become complications.”
Health risks presented by climate
In a season of extreme and dangerous weather events, Dr. Stewart noted the connection between
climate and health risks, especially for older adults and low-income populations.
“We see emergency department visits spike when the temperatures rise,” he said. “Older adults, people who work outdoors and people with chronic heart and lung conditions are especially vulnerable. Heat isn’t just a weather issue—it’s a health equity issue.”
For communities with limited cooling, transportation or healthcare providers, rising temperatures create a dangerous, often deadly situation. Dr. Stewart sees climate resilience as part of the activities needed to build health equity, calling for stronger connections among climate data analytics, care strategies and community outreach.
Leading with empathy & listening with intention
Health equity starts with listening. Dr. Stewart grounds his leadership in the belief that every patient story matters and empathy is as important as data to the future of healthcare.
With Wellstar Mobile Markets, social determinants of health screenings and mobile health outreach units, Dr. Stewart, the
Wellstar Center for Health Equity
team and Wellstar clinicians are working to transform healthcare from the inside out.
“Equity is not just the right thing to do morally,” he said. “It’s how we get better outcomes for everyone.”
Hear the full conversation.
