Project Summary/Abstract
Our objective is to host three national, in-person conferences for Consumers United for
Evidence-Based Healthcare (CUE), in 2019, 2020, and 2021, on the topic of “Dissemination and
Implementation”. We will apply a health equity lens to health services research findings and
evidence-based information. To do this, we will pursue three aims: Promotion, education, and
implementation. Through our conferences, we will promote the issue of equity to organizational
members of CUE and others. We will enhance promotion by recruiting additional consumer
groups that represent priority populations or that aim to promote health and healthcare issues
for these underserved groups to CUE. We will educate our audience though our conferences,
and they will, in turn, use the information to educate and advocate among their constituencies
for enhanced quality and high value healthcare services. Because health and healthcare equity
are directly related to a decrease in health disparities, conference presenters and topics will be
drawn from the field of health services research. Finally, we will implement change by applying
actions that increase equity in health services projects. For example, we will increase
collaboration and consumer-health professional partnerships among CUE member
organizations and healthcare societies through our Clearinghouse.
There are many reasons to support the proposed conferences. First, CUE is a recognized
leader in in patient and consumer engagement in evidence-based healthcare (EBHC). This is in
part because CUE patients and consumer advocates are well-educated and have minimized
potential conflicts of interest. Second, the annual CUE conference provides an unprecedented
opportunity for learning, training and capacity-building for consumer organizations and their
constituents. Third, the CUE staff at Johns Hopkins is well-suited to lead promotion, education
and implementation efforts pertaining to health equity with CUE’s experienced Steering
Committee. For example, we have deep and broad experience establishing partnerships that
spotlight health equity, disseminating EBHC information to diverse groups, and leveraging
resources to enable improvement in the outcomes, quality, access to, cost, and utilization of
healthcare services.