No parent, partner, or child could quantify the worth of a beloved female family member lost to cervical cancer. And yet, with today’s economic realities – and most particularly in countries that struggle to meet citizens’ basic health needs – quantifying a woman’s financial benefit to her family and community becomes necessary to justify the cost of eradicating this disease. A senior health economist with the World Health Organization estimates that for every dollar spent on cervical cancer prevention, women’s paid and unpaid contributions return $26 USD to an economy: a return rate of twenty-six to one – impressive for any health intervention. Yet for varying political, social, and cultural reasons, most countries are reluctant to spend sufficient funds on female reproductive health care. These financial obstacles to eliminating cervical cancer won’t change until each unique society is willing to question how it values its women. Eliminating death by a preventable cancer makes intuitive sense. But until those sentiments translate into public policy and equitable, affordable health care for all women, lofty ideas are not enough to save lives.

Although homelessness is a societal problem across the US, 60% of people experiencing homelessness are located in urban centers. Structural factors such as lack of affordable housing are the central drivers of urban homelessness, rather than migration patterns or individual characteristics such as substance use and mental illness. Unhoused individuals have a larger burden of disease compared to the general population, with higher mortality rates even when controlling for other factors. Although emergency departments provide access to some of the lowest barrier health care in urban areas, unhoused patients are more susceptible to deviations from the standard of care. Clinicians risk making biased or uninformed triage and treatment decisions for this patient population, which creates the potential for poor clinical outcomes. Emergency clinicians should treat people experiencing homelessness with respect and provide an appropriate evaluation and disposition as determined by presenting complaint as well as associated health and social needs. In addition to clinical care, EDs can provide people experiencing homelessness with connection to support services to improve health outcomes.