Life Span and Legal/Policy Research as Dual Focuses for Identifying and Implementing Opportunities to Realize Health Equity Patrick H. Tolan, PhD, University of Virginia; Velma McBride Murry, PhD, Vander- bilt University; Angela Diaz, MD, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai; Robert Seidel, MLA, McDaniel College October 24, 2016 Our perspective is grounded in the proposition that health equity should be central or more signifcant than any other concern, principle, criterion, or val- ue when prioritizing a national scientifc agenda, setting care goals, organizing research and evaluation, and formulating practice advisories and policy. The lens of how a given topic or task relates to health equity or lack thereof should be front and center. DISCUSSION PAPER Perspectives | Expert Voices in Health & Health Care Overarching Framework Use of this framework has the potential to advance health equity as a priority for our nation and entails not simply favoring diversity of samples, attending to epidemiological variations, and mounting good faith eforts for greater access to care for those with fewer resources, but encompasses the integration of health equity as fundamental in formulating specifc scientifc questions as well as framing the overall re- search agenda. Viewing health equity as a core con- cept of social justice includes tending to all aspects of scientifc inquiry, including research designs and methods and the organizing, interpreting, and eval- uating of scientifc fndings. We do not suggest that ideas presented here are novel, as we are not the frst to argue for this approach (Moy et al., 2005; NRC, 2004; Sen, 2009; Smedley, Stith, & Nelson, 2002). Nor do we claim to provide detailed comprehensive ar- guments addressing the numerous issues that arise in privileging this perspective over other frameworks that have emerged to address health equity and jus- tice. With this disclaimer, we begin our discussion outlining the foundation, implications, and some key features of and basis for our position noted here, and will delve into a few of the primary ensuing implications. Dual Tracks of Research for Creating Health Equity To advance our eforts to reduce health disparities through the elevation of health equity and justice, we suggest that two major tracks of scholarship serve as basic avenues of study: (1) application of highest qual- ity research from a life span developmental approach in studying causes, modifers, trajectories, and out- comes related to health and disease; and (2) empiri- cal study and systematic policy analyses of regulations and laws and related procedures, criminal and civil, that afect health equity. This includes those that may in intention or practice impede health equity but also a vigorous search for identifying those that promote health equity. We contend that the parallel pursuit and connection between these two tracks would be advan- tageous so that health equity is central within biomedi- cal and human development science and in the policy and laws afecting health opportunities and care. Ad- ditionally, this will help decrease the disparities based on ethnic group and economic class currently evident in health status, health opportunities, health services, and health outcomes. These two tracks, research through a developmental lens and policy analysis, are rudimentary and limited instruments of knowledge development. Yet despite their insufciencies, they are appropriate tools for pro-