Challenges and successes in reducing health disparities: Workshop summary

Jennifer A. Cohen, Rapporteur, Roundtable on Health Disparities
Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice (BPH)
US Institute of Medicine (IOM) [210p.] 2008

"..In early 2007, the Institute of Medicine convened the Roundtable on Health Disparities to increase the visibility of racial and ethnic health disparities as a national problem, to further the development of programs and strategies to reduce disparities, to foster the emergence of leadership on this issue, and to track promising activities and developments in health care that could lead to dramatically reducing or eliminating disparities.

The Roundtable s first workshop, Challenges and Successes in Reducing Health Disparities, was held in St. Louis, Missouri, on July 31, 2007, and examined:

  • the importance of differences in life expectancy within the United States,
  • the reasons for those differences, and
  • the implications of this information for programs and policy makers..'
Table of contents

Introduction
The Impact of Geography on Health Disparities in the United States: Different PerspectivesIntroduction
The Impact of Geography on Health Disparities in the United States: Different Perspectives
Clinical and Community-Development Approaches to Reducing Disparities
Successful Clinical and Community-Development Strategies
Health Disparities in a Business Environment
Moving Forward
Appendixes
Appendix A: Agenda of the Public Meeting Held by the Roundtable on Health Disparities
Appendix B: Workshop Presenters' Biosketches and Participant List
Appendix C: Eight Americas: Investigating Mortality Disparities Across Races, Counties, and Race-Counties in the United States
Appendix D: Community Approaches to Addressing Health Disparities