The Strategic Framework Preface Introduction Background on the Framework The Strategic Framework Next Steps Conclusions References Complete Framework (print version)

Preface

Although the health of all Americans has continued to improve over the more than two decades since the 1985 Task Force Report on Black and Minority Health was issued, racial and ethnic health disparities persist and, in some cases, are increasing. The persistence of such disparities suggests that current approaches and strategies are not producing the kinds of results needed to ensure that all Americans are able to achieve the same quality and years of healthy life, regardless of race/ethnicity, gender and other variables (as reflected in the two overarching goals of Healthy People 2010).

Garth N. Graham, MD, MPH Deputy Assistant Secretary for Minority Health

The mission of the HHS Office of Minority Health (OMH) is to improve the health of racial and ethnic minority populations through the development of health policies and programs that will help eliminate disparities. OMH has a unique leadership and coordination role to play within the Department and across the nation, relative to this mission. However, such a mission cannot be accomplished by OMH alone. We need the active engagement and sustained efforts of all stakeholders working together with us and each other to effect the necessary changes at every level and across all sectors over time. These stakeholders include racial and ethnic minority communities and those who serve them, other HHS and Federal entities, academic and research institutions, State and Tribal governments, faith- and community-based organizations, private industry, philanthropies and many others. We also need to examine what we are doing, identify what must be done differently and determine how best to work together - within and across our respective disciplines, areas of interest, organizational/institutional or geographic boundaries and spheres of influence - to enhance our individual and collective effectiveness and impacts.

The Strategic Framework for Improving Racial and Ethnic Minority Health and Eliminating Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities (Framework) presented here is intended to help guide, organize and coordinate the systematic planning, implementation and evaluation of efforts within OMH, HHS and across the nation to achieve better results relative to minority health improvements and health disparities reductions. The Framework reflects current knowledge and understanding of the nature and extent of health disparities, their causes or contributing factors, effective solutions and desired outcomes and impacts. It reinforces the importance of having and using science and knowledge as the basis for planning and implementing our program-, research-, or policy-oriented actions and activities. The Framework also suggests the need to adequately evaluate our efforts so that new knowledge can be used for continuous improvement. In addition, the Framework infers the need to fund our efforts accordingly, and to explore ways to enhance efficient use of programmatic and research funds as well as other resources and assets at our disposal.

Several aspects of this framework are worth highlighting:

1. By using a logic model approach, which builds upon current science and expert consensus about racial/ethnic minority health/health disparities and systems problems, contributing or causal factors and strategies that work, the Framework provides the rationale for efforts funded and conducted as well as for the kinds of outcomes and impacts needed . This approach can be used as a guide to move us toward a common set of objectives and goals.
2. In addition to identifying the usual determinants of health, the Framework emphasizes the role that "systems-level factors" play in promoting or inhibiting the effectiveness of strategies and practices aimed at improving racial and ethnic minority health or reducing racial and ethnic health disparities. These systems factors include: the nature and extent of available resources and how they are used, coordination and collaboration through partnerships and communication, leadership and commitment through strategic visioning and sustained attention, user-centered design in which the products and services of the system are conceived with the needs of their users in mind and the use of science and knowledge to inform programs and policies.
3. Ultimately, the Framework presents a vision - and provides the basis - for a "systems approach" to addressing racial/ethnic minority health problems within and outside of HHS. A systems approach implies that all parties engaged, in this case, in racial/ethnic minority health improvement and health disparities reduction are, themselves, part of a 'system' or 'nested' systems. As such, each party considers the causal or contributing factors and problems it is most likely to be able to impact with its particular strengths and talents. Resources and assets can then be coordinated and leveraged in more systematic and strategic ways, to achieve a range of outcomes and impacts needed so that, together, all parties can more effectively and efficiently contribute to and achieve long-term objectives and goals. This focus on systems applies as well to how various fields of research work together for greater effectiveness and efficiency to address weaknesses and gaps in scientific knowledge. A systems approach to working across diverse research disciplines may be better able to illuminate our understanding about the nature and extent of minority health and health disparities problems, especially for small population groups, the relative importance of and interrelationships between causal or contributing factors, more effective ways to break the causal chain that produces greater burdens of preventable disease and premature death among racial and ethnic minorities and the means for measuring desired outcomes and assessing progress.

We believe that the structure and approach outlined in the Framework offers a rational and systematic, yet broad and flexible, way of viewing and informing our efforts to achieve the OMH and, in reality, the national mission. We hope that the Framework will provide context for the actions needed by OMH and its partners across HHS and the nation to better leverage resources, establish priorities for ensuring effectiveness of programs and activities funded and conducted, enable identification and promotion of best practices and concrete solutions at all levels and serve as the foundation for a national results-oriented culture on racial and ethnic minority health improvement and the elimination of racial and ethnic health disparities.