Heckler Report

In 1977, the Association of Minority Health Professions Schools was formed by Louis Wade Sullivan, Ralph Cazort, Anthony Rachal, and Walter Bowie.

In the early 1980s, they commissioned a study by Ruth Hanft which was published as "Blacks and the Health Professions in the 1980s: A National Crisis and A Time for Action".

[3] Heckler was said to be disturbed by the "Blacks and the Health Professions..." documentation of life expectancy disparities, calling it an "affront to our ideals and to the genius of American medicine".

[4] A month later, Heckler contacted them to let them know that she had commissioned a taskforce to be led by Thomas E. Malone and Katrina Johnson.

[4] The Heckler Report was the first effort by the US government to investigate health inequality among racial and ethnic minorities.