Eliminating Health Disparities

Speakers:Susan Scrimshaw, PhDInterim President of Sage Colleges Wade S. NorwoodDirector of Community Engagement Finger Lakes Health Systems Agency As a result of former President Clinton's Initiative on Race over a decade ago, which catapulted a verb change from the long held practice of implementing strategies to 'reduce health disparities to eliminate them,' a national infrastructure was created to realize this new vision. Unlike previous policy documents to improve the public's health, Healthy People 2010 enumerated just two goals (1) increase quality and years of healthy life and (2) eliminate health disparities. Dr. Scrimshaw will describe the socio-cultural, health, health system, and health equity factors which contribute to health disparities. Mr. Norwood will present a model of community health care planning and policy innovation that has informed and catalyzed a community-wide effort to align strategies and interventions to de-mystify and institutionalize efforts to eliminate health disparities. Program Objectives After watching this broadcast participants will be able to:Define health disparities.Identify factors which contribute to health disparities.Describe a community-wide effort to align strategies and interventions to de-mystify and intitutionalize strategies to eliminate health disparities. Originally broadcast on February 19, 2009.