One of the things that first drew me to medicine was that health problems touched all people. It doesn’t matter if you’re rich or poor, young or old, black or white, college-educated or didn’t finish high school, everyone gets sick at some point. As a doctor, I focus more on diseases than demographics. But over the course of my career, I’ve come to see how much your income, race, and education can matter in determining whether you get sick and what treatment you get as a result. The perfectly equal care I dreamed of providing as a medical student isn’t the reality for most patients in most health systems.

Scientists are continually searching for the next big breakthrough in cancer research. But so much of what has already been discovered on how to reduce cancer risk is not being put into practice. More than 50 percent of cancer cases, and 50 percent of cancer deaths, can be prevented with the knowledge we have right now.

In health care, being an informed consumer is essential to promoting positive outcomes. Whether the issue is finding affordable care where prices vary widely, minimizing harm from medical errors, or just finding a provider, knowledge is power. Navigating the health care system is hard enough, even for health care professionals. Our most vulnerable—the uninsured, those in poverty, family caregivers, and non-English speakers—are at high risk of receiving lower-quality care, in part, because they lack the information to make choices that work for them.

As part of a multi-year, $5 million commitment to increase access to health care in communities nationwide, the CVS Health Foundation on Tuesday released new data from programs supported through partnerships with the National Association of Free & Charitable Clinics and the National Association of Community Health Centers.

For decades, more and more Californians have put on weight and fallen sick with diabetes, prompting warnings that the disease was spiraling out of control.