The Science of Eliminating Health Disparities: Summary and Analysis of the NIH Summit Recommendations

Abstract

In December 2008, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) sponsored the first NIH Summit showcasing its investment and contribution to health disparities research and unveiling a framework for moving this important field forward. The Summit, titled "The Science of Eliminating Health Disparities," drew on extensive experience of experts leading health disparities research transformation in diverse fields. The Summit also provided a historic educational opportunity to contribute to health care reform. The theme, addressing disparities through integration of science, practice, and policy, introduced a paradigm for advancing research through transformational, translational, and transdisciplinary research. Engaging active participation throughout the Summit generated recommendations bridging science, practice, and policy, including action on social determinants of health, community engagement, broad partnerships, capacity-building, and media outreach.

Imagine a World …

“…7 Individuals, private philanthropies, communitybased organizations and government are all striving to reduce these disparities. 8,9 With a goal to be part of the solution, Journal of Patient-Centered Research and Reviews has issued this second installment of research efforts designed to both describe the complexities of health disparities and promise interventions that might bring us a little closer to the reality we seek.…”

Confronting inequities: A scoping review of the literature on pharmacist practice and health-related disparities

“…A C C E P T E D 4 A study can include more than one patient population (e.g., low income groups with limited health literacy) 5 The percentage/ number indicates how many articles included this code (totals will not add up to 100 because each article included multiple codes) M A N U S C R I P T…”

“…3,4 This expanding body of 33 literature includes scholarship attentive to the creation, facilitation, and impacts of disparities at 34 societal, institutional, and individual levels. 5,6 Notably, focus is not on all health differences 35 across populations, but on a specific sub-set of these recognized as "unjust" and "avoidable" 7 36 through a human rights lens. 3 …”

Connecting the Human Variome Project to nutrigenomics

“…The NIH National Center for Minority Health and Health Disparities (NCMHD) recently called for a paradigm shift to include minority, low socioeconomic and rural populations, and individuals in biomedical research [21,22]. From the perspective of the science underlying both the HVP and nutrigenomic research efforts, understanding the full spectrum of genetic or metabolic spectra will not be possible without the involvement of all ancestral groups.…”