Federal Collaboration on Health Disparities Research

CDC Fosters Collaborative Research: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office of Public Health Science (OS), Office of Minority Health (OMH), and the U.S. Department of Education’s (DoED) Interagency Council on Disabilities Research (ICDR) has brought together federal partners (HHS and non-HHS) during 2006-2007 to explore the complex nature of health disparities and the role research could play in advancing the elimination of health disparities. In a series of meetings with federal partners across government, CDC jointly with HHS OMH and DoED ICDR formed the Federal Collaboration on Health Disparities Research (FCHDR), to provide an opportunity for federal agencies to pool scientific expertise and resources to apply research findings faster and more effectively and efficiently in an effort to eliminate health disparities. These federal representatives have worked across disciplines and missions to identify research priorities and strategies for cross-agency research collaboration. Such a coordinated effort can lead to greater improvements in the health of populations disproportionately affected by disease, injury and disability, including, but not limited to, racial and ethnic minorities, women, children, immigrants, rural populations, people with disabilities, and elderly people or older adults. FCHDR is an outgrowth of CDC’s efforts to develop Advancing the Nation‘s Health: A Guide to Public Health Research Needs, 2006–2015 and CDC’s Health Protection Goals, all of which emphasize eliminating health disparities.

CDC has supported several meetings in development of FCHDR. Below are descriptions of these meetings and contact information for finding out more about FCHDR activities.

• Collaborative Research Efforts to Eliminate Health Disparities, May 24, 2006, in Washington, D.C.: 74 participants from 10 federal departments identified 165 potential areas for research and multi-agency collaboration, formed a collaborative planning workgroup to guide the future work of FCHDR, and identified four research priority focus areas for further development. FCHDR currently has four workgroups around these four priority areas identified at that meeting.
  • Systems-wide approach to reducing obesity in vulnerable and disparate populations
  • Quality indicators for people with multiple diseases and health conditions
  • Culturally appropriate access to mental health care
  • Research into the built environment and vulnerable populations
  
  
  
• Accelerating Collaboration on Health Disparities Research, December 5–6, 2006, in Atlanta, Georgia: 96 participants from six federal departments developed descriptions of research needed for each of the top four focus areas and discussed how to sustain FCHDR. Shortly after this meeting, the HHS Disparities Council (HDC) and Department of Education ICDR were identified as Co-Leads of FCHDR.
  
  
• Next Steps in Federal Collaboration on Health Disparities Research (FCHDR), June 14, 2007, in Washington, D.C.: 45 participants from eight federal departments met to develop a Steering Committee and set the future direction of FCHDR.
  
  
• Federal Collaboration on Health Disparities Research (FCHDR) Steering Committee Kick Off Meeting, September 17, 2007, Alexandria Virginia. In addition to ratifying a Charter, identifying first-year goals and developing a plan to achieve them, the FCHDR created a 90-day action plan and one year plan to charge the workgroups and officially launch the FCHDR leadership structure.
  
  
• Partnerships to Accelerate Health Disparities Collaboration, September 17, 2007, Alexandria Virginia. This first partners meeting to accelerate collaboration on health disparities research was an initial effort to assess what is most important to researchers outside of the government. The information gathered will be shared with the FCHDR Steering Committee for consideration in future directions and activities.
  
  

Click here for more information on FCHDR or contact Dr. Suzanne Heurtin-Roberts, Special Advisor for Policy and Research, Division of Policy and Data, Office of Minority (OMH) Health, HHS, at Suzanne.HeurtinRoberts@hhs.gov or 240-453-6157. OMH is located at:

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Office of Minority Health
1101 Wootton Parkway, Suite 600
Rockville, MD 20852