ABSTRACT
The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV), the second largest Hispanic-serving institution in the
nation, founded the School of Medicine (SOM) in 2015 to address the health needs of the underrepresented
minority (URM) populations of south Texas on the US-Mexico border. In 2017, as part of its mission, the SOM
began hosting an annual research conference on health disparities. The conference was the first of its kind in
the Rio Grande Valley (RGV). To date, more than half the participants have been URMs and women. Each year
since 2017 UTRGV has held a health disparities research conference that has attracted more than 300 attendees
each year. With expected participation from both US and Mexico border institutions, the UTRGV-SOM will host
the 5th and 6th conferences on September 9-10, 2022, and September 8-9, 2023. The title will be “International
Conference on Health Disparities: Treatment and Recovery from Opioid and Alcohol Use Disorders and Related
Comorbidities (ICHD-Recover).” Opioid and alcohol use disorders are significant national public health problems
and are particularly severe among URM populations. The ICHD-Recover has the following Specific Aims: 1) To
accelerate collaborations among researchers at the national level and across the U.S.-Mexico border, 2) To
facilitate engagement and collaboration with community stakeholders in research and implementation of
culturally relevant interventions, thus obtaining community support for research on substance use disorders, 3)
To stimulate new lines of research addressing URM health with a focus on opioid and alcohol use disorders and
related comorbidities, 4) To motivate trainees from URM populations to engage in substance abuse research,
and 5) To disseminate research findings from the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) to researchers and health policy
makers in other border regions and states and the nation. The proposed conferences will include nationally
known speakers, plenary sessions, abstracts, and posters presented by students, researchers, fellows, faculty,
and professionals from the U.S. and neighboring Mexican border institutions. Seventy five percent of our
speakers are from URM. Funds will be used to 1) invite leading researchers, health disparity experts and young
scientists, from the U.S. border regions and Mexico, and 2) implement the proposed scientific agenda over two
days, thus showcasing community-engaged research in which researchers and practitioners address opioid and
alcohol use disorder health disparities in URM populations. The ICHD-Recover closely aligns with the NIH
mission, which is to support global opioid and alcohol use disorders and health disparities research to advance
scientific knowledge and aid all those affected to recover from the consequences of opioid and alcohol misuse.
The ICHD-Recover conferences will, 1) emphasize how the medical research community can most effectively
interact with community stakeholders, considering the social determinants of health to inform the design and
implementation of community intervention programs, and 2) address health disparities in persons suffering from
the consequences of opioid and alcohol misuse and associated comorbidities in URM populations.
