Oral

One of the most significant outcomes of the 1985 Secretary’s Task Force Report on Black and Minority Health was the creation of the HHS Office of Minority Health (OMH), whose mission it is “to improve the health of r/e minority populations through the development of health policies and programs that will help eliminate disparities.” While OMH serves as a focal point within HHS for racial/ethnic minority health and health disparities (MH/HD) efforts, it is not the only entity within and outside of the Department whose involvement and efforts are critical to addressing such broad and complex problems. Effectively addressing such problems requires active engagement of, and sustained attention by, all stakeholders. This panel presents recent efforts to develop and operationalize a Strategic Framework for Improving Racial/Ethnic Minority Health and Eliminating Racial/Ethnic Health Disparities, that suggests the need for a “systems approach” to guide, organize, and leverage individual and collective efforts to better achieve MH/HD-related objectives and goals. Presentations will focus on the rationale and process for developing such a Framework and the implications for research and evaluation, the development of a set of performance measures/indicators of expected impacts and outcomes for MH/HD, and the establishment of an evaluation protocol for assessing the effectiveness of strategies and practices employed.

Session Objectives: At the end of the session the participant will be able to:

CE Credits: CME, Health Education (CHES), Nursing