What we heard at the 2026 Health Equity Revolution Summit and what we’re taking away from it… 

A new cancer drug won’t save you if you can’t get to the clinic. A breakthrough screening tool won’t find your tumor early if no one told you it existed. And an AI system trained on data that doesn’t look like you may not work as well for you. 

That’s the reality that brought nearly 400 health care professionals, advocates, researchers and community leaders together on March 5, 2026, for Susan G. Komen’s Health Equity Revolution Summit. The science is advancing. The question is who it’s advancing for. 

We’ve Been Here Three Years — and the Urgency Has Only Grown 

Komen launched the Health Equity Revolution Summit in 2023 with a simple but ambitious goal: Bring together the people who understand disparities in breast cancer outcomes and create space to actually do something about them. 

Since then, the summit has reached more than 1,200 health care and public health professionals. Each year, the conversation has expanded from breast cancer alone to the full web of systemic barriers that determine who gets care, who gets diagnosed early and who survives. 

This year was no different. Except the stakes felt higher. Komen convened leaders from other disease spaces to bring together the best ideas because we understand all of us are facing the same challenges, and it will take us all working together to solve them.  

 
The Keynote That Set the Tone 

Dr. Kyu Rhee, CEO of the National Association of Community Health Centers, opened the Summit with a keynote that framed everything that followed. 

His message was direct: Community health centers are among the most critical infrastructure we have for reaching patients who face insurance instability, economic barriers and limited access to preventive care. And right now, those centers are stretched thin — even as new tools and technologies are being introduced that those same patients may never see. 

“Proximity to world-class medical institutions does not automatically translate to equitable access or outcomes.” – Summit attendee* 

 
What the Room Kept Coming Back To 

Five major themes emerged across the day’s panels and conversations. Taken together, they paint a clear picture of where the system is falling short — and where there’s real opportunity to change it. 

Access to care is still the central barrier: 

Before we can talk about AI, genomics or precision medicine, we have to talk about the basics: insurance gaps, transportation deserts, rural isolation, financial toxicity and a deep-seated mistrust of health care systems that didn’t come from nowhere. Community health centers and safety net providers are doing heroic work. They need more support — not less. 

Patient navigation isn’t a luxury. It’s infrastructure: 

Navigators help patients understand their diagnoses, find financial assistance, connect with specialists and stay in care. But training pipelines are insufficient, burnout is real and navigators with genuine cultural responsiveness are in critically short supply. Komen is already working here. Yet there’s more to do. 

AI could reduce disparities — or make them worse: 

 This was one of the most candid conversations of the day. AI tools in cancer screening and diagnosis hold enormous promise. But if those tools are trained on non-diverse datasets, designed without transparency or rolled out behind additional cost barriers, they risk automating the very inequities we’re trying to dismantle. 

“True equity in AI requires developers to treat diversity in training data not as a bonus, but as a baseline… Until that becomes standard practice, AI tools risk automating and scaling the same disparities that advocates are working so hard to dismantle.” – Summit attendee* 

Precision medicine and genomics need to be within everyone’s reach: 

Biomarker testing and targeted therapies are changing what’s possible in breast cancer treatment. But cost, coverage gaps, low awareness among providers and patients, and health literacy barriers mean those advances aren’t reaching everyone equally. Education and access must be built into the strategy — not treated as an afterthought. 

Research only works if communities trust it: 

Participants were clear: Communities can’t just be the subjects of research. They need to be involved in designing it. Data needs to be shared transparently. And health literacy has to flow both ways. 

“Communities are often asked to participate in research but don’t understand why it’s important… sharing the history and the purpose is essential to building trust.” – Summit attendee* 

This isn’t a communications problem. It’s a relationship problem. And relationships take time. 

Where Komen Comes In

Across all five themes, Komen’s work showed up — in patient navigation, in workforce development, in community-engaged research through ShareforCures®, in advocacy for coverage and screening access, in precision medicine education through the Know More series. 

But the Summit also made clear where there’s more to build: stronger clinical trial navigation, deeper integration with community health centers, clearer patient guidance on AI and genomics, and a more connected bridge between research institutions and the communities they’re trying to serve. 

“Innovation alone won’t close disparities — sustainable planning, funding and community partnerships are what make solutions work.” – Summit attendee* 
 

Watch the Summit 

Want to hear the conversations for yourself? Full recordings from the 2026 Health Equity Revolution Summit are available on YouTube. The work doesn’t stop when the summit ends — and neither do we. 

* Quotes were collected from summit attendees.