Reimagining Research and Clinical Practice for a Healthier Tomorrow in the Deep South

The symposium Breaking the Boundaries: Reimagining Research and Clinical Practice for a Healthier Tomorrow, held June 9-10, 2025 in New Orleans, Louisiana, convened leaders across research, health systems, community organizations, policy, and philanthropy to explore strategies for addressing these challenges. Discussions focused on elevating community priorities, decentralizing care, realigning incentives, and accelerating the translation of evidence into practice. The perspectives and recommendations presented here draw from the insights generated at this event, emphasizing the need for intentional redesign of current research, funding, and implementation systems. By centering community-defined outcomes, integrating multisector partnerships, and embedding implementation science from the outset, these approaches aim to close the persistent evidence-to-practice gap and create sustainable, scalable models of care that improve health equity in the Deep South.