(NORTH CAROLINA NEWS NETWORK) — North Carolina has some of the most sophisticated health care in the world, but people’s access to that care still varies.

To try to reduce those disparities, the UNC Health System has appointed its first executive director for health equity.

Dr. Crystal Wiley Cené, a professor at the UNC School of Medicine, already directs a research program on health disparities at the medical school.

She says the dual pandemics of COVID-19 and racial injustice have highlighted disparities in the nation’s health care.

Cené says she doesn’t know yet what UNC’s strategy for health equity will look like.

Including its flagship hospital in Chapel Hill, UNC now has 11 hospitals, from Onslow County on the coast to Hendersonville in the mountains, including Wayne UNC Health Care in Goldsboro.