Utibe R. Essien, MD, MPH, is an internal medicine physician and health-equity researcher at UCLA, where he is an associate professor in residence in medicine. He studies differences in access to medications and medical technologies, particularly treatments for cardiovascular disease. His work considers what happens between the development of a treatment and a patient's ability to obtain and use it.
A New Yorker and the son of Nigerian immigrants, Essien studied psychology at New York University before earning his medical degree at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 2013. He completed an internal medicine residency at Massachusetts General Hospital in 2016, then remained there for a general internal medicine fellowship. He also earned a master of public health degree at Harvard in 2018, concentrating in clinical effectiveness.
In 2021, Essien introduced the term pharmacoequity to describe the goal of ensuring equitable access to appropriate medications regardless of race, ethnicity, income or available resources. A JAMA policy article that year, coauthored with S. B. Dusetzina and W. F. Gellad, addressed pharmacoequity as a response to health disparities.
With Pranav M. Patel and Laura Happe, Essien coauthored a measurement framework in the February 2025 issue of the Journal of Managed Care & Specialty Pharmacy. It follows the steps through which patients receive medication: reaching healthcare services, obtaining a prescription, filling it, continuing treatment and having it monitored. For each stage, the authors proposed measures and possible data sources. They also described a workflow that health systems and health plans could use to identify gaps and track progress. This was a proposed framework for measurement, rather than evidence that a particular intervention had already eliminated unequal care.
The University of Michigan College of Pharmacy scheduled Essien to present Pursuing Pharmacoequity: A Prescription for Health on November 13, 2025. The program was intended to explain the concept and its application in practice and communities. The event was part of the college's McKesson Foundation Health Equity Speaker Series.
