HEIA is one part of the repertoire of equity-driven planning tools. It is a planning tool that analyzes the potential impact of service, program or policy changes on health disparities and/or health disadvantaged populations. It can both help to plan new services, policy development or other initiatives or assess existing programs.
HEIA is not for all purposes — for example, it is not as well suited for needs assessment, measuring and tracking action on equity, program and service evaluation, or strategic planning. Rather, HEIA is often seen as ‘first-pass’ screening tool.
HEIA tools arose out of broader health impact assessments, used in many jurisdictions during the last 15 years. HEIA tools are more recent in their development. One key reason was increasing policy attention paid to social determinants of health and health disparities – the need to add equity focus into planning. At the same time, the need for shorter and more focused processes – sometimes called Rapid HIA — was recognized.
