Health Needs Assessments to Improve Primary Care in a Diverse Northern Manhattan Community

Family Medicine offers a unique voice to public health discourse. It represents the intersection between individual care and population-based public health care, where physicians provide quality health care to patients in the context of their communities. Family Medicine residents at the New York-Presbyterian Family Medicine Program in partnership with the Center for Family and Community Medicine at Columbia University Medical Center are encouraged to conduct applied community-based research that informs improved approaches to the practice of primary care. A common theme among all research projects is the evaluation and elimination of health care disparities. Four current projects demonstrate how understanding community needs in one geographical area of northern Manhattan can aid health care providers who care for these patients. The projects include: 1) a comparative analysis of the health needs of Mexican and Dominican immigrants using survey tools and focus groups; 2) personal interviews of 102 postpartum or pregnant women about their sources of information, attitudes, influences and behaviors regarding breastfeeding; 3) a health needs assessment focusing on Arab immigrant women‘s barriers to access for primary care; 4) a feasibility study including focus groups with patients and providers about group prenatal visits. Our poster shows the results of the four studies with respective outcomes of the interviews, focus groups and surveys. Additionally, we make recommendations for clinical practice based on the results that inform clinical practice.