The speaker’s at today’s NIH Summit on the Science of Health Disparities were all dynamic and knowledgeable. Governor Howard Dean MD, Chairman, Democratic National Committee started off the day with a rousing speech on the future of health care in the US. He was followed by several panelists speaking on the intersection of science, policy and practice. The lunch keynote speaker, Elijah Cummings, United States Congress, Washington, DC capped off the morning with a powerful and inspiring talk that had audience members visibly moved. Moving into the afternoon breakout sessions was more of the same - presentations and sharing of knowledge and action around overcoming health disparities. Below are some resources I learned about while at the Summit

Closing the Gap in a Generation: Health Equity through Action on the Social Determinants of Health
http://www.who.int/bookorders/anglais/detart1.jsp?sesslan=1&codlan=1&codcol=15&codcch=741
Final Report of the Commission on Social Determinants of Health
Nonserial Publication
World Health Organization
The Final Report of the Commission on Social Determinants of Health sets out key areas of daily living conditions and of the underlying structural drivers that influence them in which action is needed. It provides analysis of social determinants of health and concrete examples of types of action that have proven effective in improving health and health equity in countries at all levels of socioeconomic development.

The Community Health Promotion Handbook: Action Guides to Improve Community Health
http://www.cdc.gov/steps/actionguides/
Partnership for Prevention® and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have developed The Community Health Promotion Handbook: Action Guides to Improve Community Health, an evidence-based tool that bridges the gap between research and practice. Five selected recommendations from the Task Force on Community Preventive Services’ The Guide to Community Preventive Services: What Works to Promote Health? have been translated into action guides that provide public health practitioners and others interested in health promotion with the necessary “how to” guidance to implement effective community-level strategies.

Moving Upstream: How Interventions That. Address the Social Determinants of Health Can. Improve Health and Reduce Disparities
http://www.nursingcenter.com/pdf.asp?AID=819665 (pdf)
David R. Williams, Manuela V. Costa, Adebola O. Odunlami, and Selina A. Mohammed
J Public Health Management Practice, 2008, November(Suppl), S8–S17
CopyrightC 2008 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 17th, 2008 at 7:12 pm and is filed under Articles, Low Income, Minority Health Concerns, Public Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.