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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Dina Kurz, MHSA¹, Jody Platt, MPH², Jeanette Kunnath, MEd¹, Sam Harper, PhD³, and John Lynch, PhD³. (1) Michigan Public Health Training Center, University of Michigan School of Public Health, 611 Church Street, Room 254, Ann Arbor, MI 48104-3028, (2) Life Sciences and Society Program, University of Michigan School of Public Health, 611 Church Street, Room 250, Ann Arbor, MI 48104-3028, 734-647-0206, jeplatt@umich.edu, (3) Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health, McGill University, 1020 Pine Avenue West, Room 17B, Montreal, QC H3A 1A2, Canada

Health disparity is an issue at the forefront of our nation's public health agenda; however, little consensus exists on what defines disparity or how it is best measured. "Measuring Health Disparities", an interactive CD-ROM, was created by the Michigan Public Health Training Center (MPHTC), University of Michigan School of Public Health, as a result of a workshop led by Drs. John Lynch and Sam Harper. The material was developed from university-based teaching and several community workshops, one of which was in Detroit, Michigan in 2003 for public health practitioners involved in addressing the problem of health disparities. Following that workshop, participants asked for additional tools to apply in their individual programs.

MPHTC worked with Drs. Lynch and Harper to create this durable, interactive tool to help understand, define, and measure health disparity. The CD-ROM has been distributed to almost 3000 public health practitioners worldwide since August 2005. MPHTC is one of a network of fourteen HRSA-funded Public Health Training Centers nationwide, based within schools of public health and focused on improving the quality and outcomes of core training for public health practitioners.

In this session, we will share the experience of the MPHTC in the development and dissemination of this training tool, focusing on crosscutting applicability to academia and practice. We will describe an innovative application of technology for workforce development involving a password-protected, interactive CD-ROM and companion website, and share lessons learned. Based on this single case study, further research and development questions emerge and will be discussed.

Learning Objectives:

• • Describe how the use of innovative technology-learning tools can enhance health disparity curricula.
• • Identify challenges to making academic research methods useful for public health practitioners.
• • Discuss further research and development questions for innovative training of public health practitioners.

Keywords: Health Disparities, Training

Related Web page: www.measuringhealthdisparities.org

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No