NIH is sponsoring a summit this week, The Science of Eliminating Health Disparities. I heard about it from Mary Brophy Marcus’s article in USA Today and I found this press release online, but I haven’t seen other coverage of the event. If you spot stories about the summit in the news, on blogs, on Twitter, etc., please post links in the comments.
The summit program is a treasure trove of ideas for conference organizers who want to answer Gilles Frydman’s call to action.
Just heard from @Sarahrahpark that @laurencturner is Twittering from the event.
I also found a link to the Kaiser HealthCast: NIH Summit: Day 1
I found one organization which is presenting a poster at the Summit:
University of Kentucky’s HEEL program which “was funded to address the rural health disparities in health literacy.”
Fascinating program! The way it is organized makes me think that changes are indeed coming!
The only way to improve the healthcare system is start thinking about improvements in a specific medical condition, but over the full cycle of care. This is one of the main ideas of the wonderful Michael Porter’s book, “Redefining Healthcare: creating value-based competition on results”.
If you look at the conference program, track 2 is exactly that: HEALTH DISPARITIES DISEASES AND CONDITIONS. Amen!
It is our responsibility, as a society championing civility and democracy, to make sure we work hard to understand the causes and limit the impact of these disparities.
I’m attending and have been posting on Twitter. It’s electric and empowering and informative. But as a health professional with new media experience, I notice that Gilles Frydman is right on target with his call to action. There is a huge digital divide.
This meeting includes thousands of individuals brimming with energy and passion who really, really want to make a difference. In many cases they are, and in many cases it’s clear we could have a much better impact via 2.0 communication strategies. There is much work for all of us to do to bridge the divide.
Only 12% of adults have health literacy – a stat from the mtg provided by Kenneth Moritsugu, former acting Surgeon General.