Health equity research has advanced substantially during the past two decades and has emerged as a foundational element of population health science and scholarship. JAMA Health Forum has embraced this evolution as part of its core mission and has been committed to publishing health equity science and scholarship that not only informs but also challenges and inspires change. As the field advances it becomes important to pause and to ask: where is the field headed? How can we ensure that the scholarship we publish is advancing health equity? 

Authors first discuss the challenges in health equity research: limited methodological transparency, unclear definition of key social constructs, narrow contextual framing, and overstatement of policy relevance. They then discuss three next steps in health equity research: reframing to bring new insight, shifting to epistemic transparency, and pushing the envelope on what researchers know.