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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
Sheila P. Merriweather, MPH, DHHS/OSOPHS/Office of Minority Health, 5515 Security Lane, Suite 1000, Rockville, MD 20852, 301-443-9923, smerriweather@osophs.dhhs.gov, Olivia Carter-Pokras, PhD, Data Councils' Working Group on Racial and Ethnic Data, Department of Health and Human Services/Office of the Secretary Office of Public Health and Science/Office of Minority Health, 5515 Security Lane, Suite 1000, Rockville, MD 20852, and Beatrice Rouse, PhD, Office of Applied Studies, SAMHSA, Room 16-105, Parklawn Building, 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, MD 20857.
Numerous reports have long acknowledged serious gaps in health information systems and databases regarding racial and ethnic (r/e) data. While a number of improvements have been made in r/e data, serious gaps remain. Recently, HHS has implemented several measures to increase research on disparities in health, promote the availability of standard r/e data, and enforce nondiscrimination in access to services. One of these recent measures include the release of a comprehensive report on "Improving the Collection and Use of Racial and Ethnic Data in HHS.” Major overarching recommendations are: 1) develop a 10-20 year strategic plan for national surveys; 2) ensure that the standards being developed in response to HIPAA include r/e identifiers; 3) address the r/e gaps for non-developmental objectives for Healthy People 2010; 4) expand or establish new registries for certain chronic diseases ; 5) explore the feasibility of collecting sufficiently large State sample sizes for each r/e group; 6) support extramural and intramural analyses of existing data for and related to r/e groups; 7) develop aggressive public use data release programs; 8) publish periodic national reports in the health of and services received for r/e groups; 9) develop an initiative to train health personnel to improve the comprehensiveness and reality of r/e data; and 10) disseminate relevant r/e findings back to the communities where the data is collected.
The presenter will discuss policy issues as well as innovative approaches for improving racial and ethnic data collection, analysis and interpretation and dissemination.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Policy/Policy Development, Minority Research
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: Department of Health and Human Services; HHS Data Council; HHS Working Group on Racial and Ethnic Data.
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.