Most cultural competence programs are based on traditional models of cross-cultural education that were motivated primarily by the desire to alleviate barriers to effective health care for immigrants, refugees, and others on the sociocultural margin. The main driver of renewed interest in cultural competence in the health professions has been the call to eliminate racial and ethnic disparities ...

INTRODUCTION Disparities in the quality of health care and treatment among racial or ethnic groups can result from unequal access to medical care, disparate treatments for similar severities of symptoms, and wide divergence in general health status among individuals. Such disparities may be eliminated through better use of health information technology (IT). Investment in health IT could foster...

Typically, when the term “health disparity” is used, disparities in health related to or associated with race and/or ethnicity are what is meant. Disparities related to race and ethnicity are indeed the topic of this discussion, but there are many other types of health disparities that are often tightly linked to race/ethnic disparities, such as those related to sex, socioeconomic status, and r...

The increasing interest in the role of racism and racialization in health disparities, calls for exploring new paradigms in addressing and eliminating health disparities related to race/ethnicity. Cultural competence is conceptualized as one of the keys ways to address racial/ethnic disparities in public health and healthcare. However, for cultural competence to fulfill this role, it requires a...

Progress to address health care equity requires health care providers' commitment, but their engagement may depend on their perceptions of the factors contributing to inequity. To understand providers' perceptions of causes of racial health care disparities, a short survey was delivered to health care providers who work at 3 Veterans Health Administration sites, followed by qualitative intervie...

INTRODUCTION Differences in risk for death from diseases and other causes among racial/ethnic groups likely contributed to the limited improvement in the state of health in the United States in the last few decades. The objective of this study was to identify causes of death that are the largest contributors to health disparities among racial/ethnic groups. METHODS Using data from WONDER syst...

The relative contribution of genetic and environmental influences to the US black-white disparity in cardiovascular disease (CVD) is hotly debated within the public health, anthropology, and medical communities. In this article, we review evidence for developmental and epigenetic pathways linking early life environments with CVD, and critically evaluate their possible role in the origins of the...

The future of preconception care will require an innovative multigenerational approach to health promotion for women and men to achieve optimal reproductive health outcomes. In this paper we provide a summary of historical trends in perinatal interventions in the United States that have effectively reduced adverse perinatal outcomes but have not improved disparities among ethnic/racial groups. ...

In the summer of 2005, the Society for Public Health Education convened a meeting, Health Disparities and Social Inequities, with the task of setting the minority health disparities research agenda for public health educators. The article provides a history of minority health efforts beginning with the Negro Health Improvement Week in 1915 and an overview of National Institutes of Health's (NIH...

Leaders of health care organizations need to be prepared to improve quality and achieve equity in today's health care environment characterized by a focus on achieving value and addressing disparities in a diverse population. To help address this need, the Disparities Solutions Center at Massachusetts General Hospital launched the Disparities Leadership Program in 2007. The leadership program i...