March 2009

In this Issue:

• New Resources 
  • NEW MEDIA
  • FELLOWSHIP/FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES  
  • PUBLICATIONS
    
    
• Activities in the Field
  
  
• Policy Updates
  
  
• Upcoming Events

New Resources

NEW MEDIA:

• The Alliance for Health Reform hosted a briefing called Community Health Centers: Their Post-Stimulus Role in Health Reform. Congress has recently approved a stimulus package that includes almost $2 billion for health center infrastructure. Community health centers play a key role in the U.S. health care safety net. They provide primary health care and other health services for medically underserved populations, including one in eight Medicaid beneficiaries, one in seven uninsured persons, one in three people in poverty, one in ten minorities, and one in nine rural Americans. A webcast of this briefing is available here.
  
• The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health Minority Student Caucus recently hosted its annual conference, Our World, Our Community: Building Bridges for Health Equality. The conference featured workshops, ranging from men’s health disparities to the impact of racism on health. To view conference highlights, including webcasts and presentations, click here.

FELLOWSHIP/FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES:

Color the Future of Medicine Fellowship

Color the Future of Medicine Fellowship (CMF) is a newly created program to assist prospective medical and dental students with the financial expense associated with applying to medical and dental school. Research shows that one of the leading factors preventing minorities from applying to medical and dental professional programs is the costs associated with the preparation. The Fellowship’s intent is to help alleviate some of the expense for prospective students through leveraging its partnerships with universities, companies, and other related organizations. The application deadline is April 1, 2009. For more information about the fellowship, click here.

Louis Stokes Urban Health Public Policy Fellows Program with the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC)

The Louis Stokes Urban Health Policy Fellows Program is a 12-month policy training and leadership development program for policy professionals who are committed to eliminating health disparities. Typically, fellows receive health policy training by spending five months working in a Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) member’s office and the remaining seven months working on a congressional committee that focuses on health-related issues. The program also includes enrichment opportunities, such as seminars on policy and politics. Through this program, fellows are exposed to the history and work of the CBC, and are prepared to analyze how policies affect African Americans and other minority groups.

Deadline for applications is April 16, 2009. For more information about this fellowship, click here.

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Investigator Awards

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Investigator Awards in Health Policy Research funds highly-qualified individuals to undertake broad studies of the most challenging health policy issues facing America. RWJF will award approximately 10 grants of up to $335,000 each to investigators from a variety of disciplines to support projects that combine creative and conceptual thinking with innovative, policy-relevant solutions. The RWJF welcomes applications from investigators in the health, social, and behavioral sciences, as well as other fields. They seek a diverse group of applicants, including minorities, early-career investigators, and individuals who work in nonacademic settings such as research firms and policy organizations. A letter of intent is due March 25, 2009. For more information click here.

PUBLICATIONS:

• Families USA published Americans at Risk: One in Three Uninsured, which presents data showing that 86.7 million people were uninsured for some period of time during 2007-2008. The report finds that 55.1 percent of Hispanics/Latinos, 40.3 percent of African Americans, and 34.0 percent of people of other racial or ethnic minorities went without health insurance in 2007-2008, compared to 25.8 percent of whites. To view this report, click here. To view a factsheet from Families USA highlighting uninsured numbers for minorities, click here.
  
• The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities published Curbing Medicare Advantage Overpayments Could Benefit Millions of Low-Income and Minority Americans. The report suggests minority Americans would disproportionately benefit from a system of universal health coverage given that they constitute a majority of the uninsured. To finance this system, researchers suggest eliminating large overpayments to the private insurers that serve some Medicare beneficiaries through the Medicare Advantage program—and reinvesting these savings to finance universal health coverage. To view this brief, click here.
  
• The Archives of Internal Medicine released a new study, Separate and Unequal, which examines the influence of physician workplace conditions on health care disparities. Researchers found that because of differences in quality of care (e.g., less access to medical supplies and more chaotic work environments in clinics where minorities make up at least 30 percent of the patient population), minority patients have worse outcomes from numerous diseases and conditions, such as depression and substance abuse problems. To view an abstract of the study, click here.
  
• The Health Policy Institute at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies released a series of issue briefs about health disparities among African American, Hispanic, and white children over the 1997-2006 time period. The first two briefs, Trends in Child Health 1997-2006: Assessing Black-White Disparities and Trends in Child Health, 1997-2006: Assessing Hispanic-White Disparities, examine factors that influence health and quality of life, such as low birth weight, unmet dental needs, and an ADHD/ADD diagnosis.
  
• The Applied Research Center and the Center for the Study of Social Policy published a new study, Check the Color Line: 2009 Income Report. The report presents alarming data on racial and ethnic income disparities at both the national and state levels, and proposes policy solutions to promote equality of opportunity. Among its many policy solutions, the report suggests that state policy makers should expand the availability of childcare by expanding eligibility levels for subsidies, and reducing copayments for minority parents. To view this study, click here.

[Return to top] 

Activities in the Field

Center for Native American Health (CNAH) at the University of New Mexico

The Center for Native American Health (CNAH) at the University of New Mexico (UNM) Health Sciences Center was established in 2002. The primary mission of the CNAH is to “build and strengthen health alliances between the Native American and University Communities and their partners for the purpose of improving Native American health in New Mexico.”

The center is committed to improving the health of American Indians in New Mexico by providing technical assistance, capacity building, student pipeline initiatives, and health policy development to tribal and urban communities. The CNAH identifies and works with tribal priority needs, including but not limited to health career development for Native American youth, cultural sensitivity training for health professionals, and regional substance abuse and mental health services.

Since 2005 the CNAH has partnered with the Albuquerque Area Indian Health Board in attaining a four year Indian Health Service/National Institutes of Health collaboration grant called NARCH (Native American Research Centers for Health). NARCH has a student development program to build a large base of American Indian research scientists. This student development initiative is a community driven effort aimed at addressing cultural issues in education as well as improving how the University recruits Native American students into health careers.

In addition to its work to diversify the medical workforce, the CNAH also works in partnership with several other UNM organizations to educate and treat Native Americans with cancer. The CNAH, UNM Cancer Center and National Cancer Institute's Cancer Information Service are working together to reduce cancer disparities and to deliver comprehensive cancer care services to New Mexico’s Native American population. They do this through outreach to build relationships, assessments of Native American community-specified cancer priorities, implementation and evaluation of community-based cancer education, and the development of a Native American cancer information resource center. In the resource center, cancer information (through pamphlets, etc.) is provided to Native American community members in a culturally appropriate manner.

For more information about the CNAH, please contact Gayle Dinechacon at gdchacon@salud.unm.edu or call 505-272-4100.

[Return to top]

Policy Updates

White House Summit on Health Reform

In keeping with his belief that health reform is not only a “moral imperative, but a fiscal imperative,” President Obama recently led the White House Summit on Health Reform. President Obama stated that if we do not invest in health reform now, we will continue to contribute to the current budget deficit. During the summit, President Obama mentioned his proposed budget plan for the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), which establishes a reserve fund of more than $630 billion to be used over the next ten years. The HHS budget will fund, but is not limited to funding, strengthening the Medicare program, accelerating the adoption of health information technology, investing in increasing the number of doctors to practice in medically-underserved areas, and strengthening the Indian Health System. The budget also calls for a strategic effort beyond this initial “down payment” to put the nation on a path towards health coverage for all. For a full report of the HHS budget, click here. 
 
The White House summit brought together people from diverse backgrounds and interests: both private and public interest groups, community voices, Congress, and representatives from every organization—all with the common interest to discuss and raise concerns over the current health care crisis. After the opening remarks, the nearly 150 participants were assigned to one of five breakout sessions led by a senior Obama staff member and/or congressman. Topics of these sessions ranged from expanding health care infrastructure, to investing in preventive medicine, to improving health information technology. To watch videos of these breakout sessions, click here. To watch a webcast of the White House summit, click here.

Building on the success of the summit, President Obama announced that a series of Regional White House Forums on Health Reform would take place across the country to bring the conversation about health care reform directly to communities. These regional summits are to be hosted by Governors of the states and will include participants ranging from doctors and patients to providers and policy experts. The summits will consist of open conversations with everyday Americans, local, state and federal elected officials, and senior Obama administration officials. The first regional summit recently took place in Dearborn, Michigan. Other regional summits are currently taking place across American cities.

Upcoming Events

• The Impact of Health Care Reform on Minority Populations and Their Providers
  March 26, 2009, 6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
  Hiebert Hall, Boston University School of Medicine, 715 Albany St, 14th Floor, Boston, Massachusetts 02451
  Sponsor: Massachusetts Medical Society
  For more information and to register, click here.
  
• Third Annual Health Disparities Conference
  April 20-21, 2009
  Sheraton New Orleans, 500 Canal St., New Orleans, Louisiana 70130
  Sponsor: Xavier University of Louisiana College of Pharmacy
  For more information and to register, click here.
  
• Second Annual Community Voices Freedom’s Voice Conference
  April 30 – May 1, 2009
  The Renaissance Waverly Hotel, 2450 Galleria Parkway, Atlanta, Georgia 30339
  Sponsors: Morehouse School of Medicine
  For more information and to register, click here.

 [Return to top]