2012 Science of Eliminating Health Disparities Summit
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), under the leadership of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the HHS Office of Minority Health (OMH), invites you to the 2012 Science of Eliminating Health Disparities Summit (also called the 2012 Health Disparities Summit). The summit will be held on Wednesday, October 31st through Saturday, November 3rd, 2012 at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland. (more)

NIMHD Grantees Promote Health in Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders
The month of May, which is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, provides a unique opportunity to reflect on the health of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Over the years, NIMHD has funded dozens of grants to improve the health of these populations, addressing both cultural and linguistic factors. (more)

NIH Health Disparities Seminar Series
In honor of Lupus Awareness Month, NIH is pleased to welcome Dr. Graciela S. Alarcón as the featured speaker for the NIH Health Disparities Seminar Series on May 17, 2012. Dr. Alarcón, Jane Knight Lowe Chair of Medicine in Rheumatology, Emeritus, at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, will discuss the impact of ethnicity on the course and outcome of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), or lupus. (more)

New deputy director to lead NIMHD’s minority health and health disparities coordination efforts
NIMHD welcomes M. Roy Wilson, M.D., M.S., as Deputy Director Strategic Scientific Planning and Program Coordination.  Wilson will lead the Institute’s coordination of NIH minority health and health disparities research as authorized in the Minority Health and Health Disparities Research and Education Act of 2000, and the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. (more)

A Word From the AAMC President: Eliminating Health Disparities to Improve the Health of All
We all have seen the headlines calling attention to the troubling state of health disparities in our nation. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, African American, Hispanic, Asian American, American Indian, and Alaska Native populations have higher mortality rates than other populations, while other research has shown differences of up to 33 years of life expectancy between various racial and geographic groups in the United States. (more)

NIMHD is funding a new AAMC initiative to address health disparities called U-HEALTH (Universities for Health Equity through Alignment, Leadership, and Transformation of the Healthcare Workforce).

NIH Announces Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities
The National Institutes of Health announces the transition of the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NCMHD) to the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD). The transition gives the institute a more defined role in the NIH's research agenda against health disparities, which it defines as differences in the incidence, prevalence, mortality, and burden of diseases and other adverse health conditions that exist among specific population groups. (more)

‘We Have Unfinished Business’
Minority Health Center Now an Institute
Two decades of work to bring attention to the unequal burden of illness and death experienced by racial and ethnic minorities, rural and poor populations in this country has culminated in the creation of the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities at NIH. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (P.L. 111-148) also known as the health care reform law signed by President Obama on Mar. 23, 2010, re-designated the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities to an institute. The official re-designation was announced in the Federal Register on Sept. 13. (more)