The great uncertainty surrounding healthcare reform provides little incentive for action. However, as healthcare leaders wait for final rules and clarity about accountable care organizations (ACOs), inaction is the inappropriate response. Several central themes emerge from research about beginning the ACO process. Leaders should be able to understand and articulate ACO concepts. They should cha...

To prepare students to be effective practitioners in an increasingly diverse United States, medical educators must design cross-cultural curricula, including curricula in women's health. One goal of such education is cultural competence, defined as a set of skills that allow individuals to increase their understanding of cultural differences and similarities within, among, and between groups. I...

In their report in this month’s issue of Pediatrics, Toomey et al analyzed data from the National Survey of Children’s Health related to parental rating of their children’s receipt of care coordination. The authors found that 41% of all parents, and 72% of parents of children with special health care needs, reported that their child needed some type of care coordination. However, almost one-thi...

A collaborative primary health care service demonstration program was conducted to improve diabetes care among limited English-proficient (LEP) Latino patients. The intervention provided a multilevel approach aimed at patients and health care providers: Community health workers (CHWs) were mobilized to offer diabetes education in Spanish to LEP Latino diabetes patients, and health professions s...

Older minority Americans experience worse health outcomes than their white counterparts, exhibiting the need for social justice in all areas of their health care. Justice, fairness, and equity are crucial to minimizing conditions that adversely affect the health of individuals and communities. In this paper, Alzheimer's disease (AD) is used as an example of a health care disparity among elderly...

This integrated literature review provides state-of-the-science information regarding parent participation in the care of hospitalized child. The database search revealed only 12 articles on this subject published between 1996-2002. Ganong's (1987) integrative research review process guided this study, and the matrix method of Garrard (1999) was modified to develop the data collection tool. The...

BACKGROUND Almost three decades after the discovery of HIV and AIDS in Ghana, the most obvious impact of the disease is the growing orphan crisis affecting most families and communities, especially in areas that the prevalence of HIV has exceeded the epidemic's threshold of 5%. Studies have indicated that these orphans usually experience a wide range of problems which include education, nutriti...

Using a three-part theoretical framework, the cultural relevance cycle-which consists of (a) knowing community dynamics, (b) knowing how community dynamics influence educational processes, and (c) implementing strategies that reflect cultural knowledge of the community--we examined teachers' and students' perspectives on culturally relevant physical education in urban settings. We observed and ...

Health care services increasingly face patient populations with high levels of ethnic and cultural diversity. Cultures are associated with distinctive ways of life; concepts of personhood; value systems; and visions of the good that affect illness experience, help seeking, and clinical decision-making. Cultural differences may impede access to health care, accurate diagnosis, and effective trea...

Chronic kidney disease has a higher prevalence in Indigenous populations globally. The incidence of end-stage kidney disease in Australian Aboriginal people is eight times higher than non-Aboriginal Australians. Providing services to rural and remote Aboriginal people with chronic disease is challenging because of access and cultural differences. This study aims to describe and analyze the pers...