Health Disparities

Center for Health Policy and the Health Equity Collaborative: CHP has been awarded a two-year contract by the Missouri Foundation for Health to establish the Missouri Health Equity Collaborative

• Background, Objectives, Activities and Results of the Collaborative

Achieving Health Equity, an annual conference hosted by the Center for Health Policy

November 15, 2007 Regional Health Equity Collaborative Network Meeting

• Slides - PowerPoint or .pdf version
• Minutes from the meeting

The Joint Commission's Report, "What did the doctor say?"

University of Missouri's Task Force on Health Disparities

Center for Disease Control
Office of Minority Health
Eliminating Racial & Ethnic Health Disparities

National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities

Missouri Health Equity Collaborative (download as PDF Document)
Background	Objectives	Activities	Results
BACKGROUND The University of Missouri’s Center for Health Policy, was recently awarded a two-year contract by the Missouri Foundation for Health to establish the Missouri Health Equity Collaborative, in conjunction with Washington University. Dr. Kristofer Hagglund and Gwen Ratermann, both of the University of Missouri’s Center for Health Policy, will serve as the primary investigator and project director, respectively. The duration of the contract is two years, with a total award of $122,186 for that period. The Missouri Health Equity Collaboration stems from research on health disparities conducted by both the Center for Health Policy at the University of Missouri and Washington University through a prior eighteen-month study. The first Achieving Health Equity in Missouri post-conference survey also indicated the desire among those in health care to create a more formal infrastructure to promote collaboration. With these considerations, the Centers for Health Policy are partnering to create an infrastructure to support community organizations, health care providers, researchers, state agencies, and policy experts throughout the state who are interested in eliminating health disparities. -Collaborative Main- OBJECTIVES Develop and coordinate collaborative research projects. Serve as a conduit for connecting researchers and health equity program developers, to share expertise and experience. Explore and encourage service provision opportunities; integration of research, education and outreach opportunities among the universities across the state of Missouri. Encourage research to serve specific needs of Missouri’s underserved population. -Collaborative Main- COLLABORATIVE ACTIVITIES Online Portal Implementation of an online portal to establish a virtual health disparities community. The online portal will serve as a vital resource in connecting those interested in health disparities with the Collaborative and assist in developing partnerships among communities, state and local agencies, and researchers to implement the most proven and effective practices in reducing health disparities. The searchable databases will allow users to identify (and is not limited to): Potential research and community partners Disparity reducing best practices Current and past disparities research in Missouri Current programs aimed at reducing health disparities in Missouri; and Evidence to inform policy decisions Conferences and Regional Meetings The group will hold an annual racial and ethnic health disparities conference each spring, rotating geographic locations across Missouri. Bi-annual videoconference research meetings will be held via the telehealth network in the five Area Health Education Centers, bringing together stakeholders from across the MFH service region. Quarterly regional meetings will focus on promising areas of service and research and will bring together agencies implementing “best practices” on a community level. These meetings will encourage and enhance regional collaborations and form the foundation for future research and interventions. Policy Briefs Development, dissemination and distribution of policy briefs geared toward decision makers of evidence-based policy solutions for achieving health equity will be part of the Collaboration. All health care stakeholders in the MFH region will receive briefs to support both “top-down” and “ground-up” policy initiatives. Briefs will be timely, and focus on needs expressed by community organizations, health care providers, and professionals in the MFH region. Newsletter The Collaborative will develop, produce and distribute a quarterly newsletter to provide updates on health disparities initiatives and research taking place throughout the state of Missouri. The newsletter will serve as a showcase successes and innovative projects, meeting updates and other pertinent items. It will be distributed both locally and nationally, and serve to identify additional partners and enhance communication. -Collaborative Main- COLLABORATIVE RESULTS The Missouri Health Equity Collaborative will formalize the relationships developed during the initial study of health disparities in the Bootheel and St. Louis and allow for continued momentum building to reduce health disparities across the MFH service region. The Health Equity Collaborative will: Allow partners to exchange ideas and share resources and reach consensus on the development and implementation of targeted intervention to reduce health disparities; Bridge the public/private sectors and connect health services/policy researchers to service providers in minority communities; Provide an infrastructure to meet the communication, research and service provider needs of those Missourians working on this issue; Disseminate best practices and research findings to those serving minority communities; and Enrich future project and funding opportunities by building upon collaborative partnerships, shared resources and common goals. As we found in the initial study, there are numerous individuals and organizations working on eliminating health disparities. The main purpose of the proposed Collaborative is to continue to raise awareness about health disparities in Missouri and unite stakeholders through a formal, centralized communications network. Only when we join together will we be able to overcome the disparities that separate us. -Collaborative Main-