PA-21-151
UCB PI: Seth M. Holmes
PROJECT SUMMARY
Medical and public health research has shown how economic and social structures negatively
shape health outcomes in minority populations. This research has foregrounded culture and
access to healthcare as the dominant determinants of health outcomes. However, an improved
understanding of the ways larger social processes, including structural racism, impact minority
health and health disparities would enhance health services to minority populations and reduce
health disparities. Most health care practitioners are not trained in social science frameworks,
and most social scientists who do related research do not know how to translate their research
to make it accessible and actionable by clinicians. This project contributes to reducing health
disparities by organizing an interdisciplinary conference to bridge social science and clinical
knowledge of health in minority populations - especially immigrant populations. The conference
will be attended by social scientists, clinicians, policy makers and the general public. The
conference will include panels and keynotes delivered by expert clinicians and social scientists
to thematically orient the conference and disseminate cutting-edge research on minority health
and health disparities. Presenters come from diverse backgrounds and have specialized
knowledge of the key health issues facing minority populations in the United States, including
such topics as sexual gender minorities, rural residents, and immigrant communities. In addition
to the keynotes and panels, clinicians will present real case studies of minority patients for
rigorous co-analysis with social scientists in small groups. Cases will include maternal
mortality/morbidity and infant mortality and infectious diseases. These workshop sessions will
be designed to use diverse disciplinary knowledge, methods, and theories to understand cases
previously considered intractable in new ways, sensitive to the unique structural and
socioeconomic contexts of each case. Group discussions will maintain a translational focus so
as to produce actionable interventions, health systems innovations, and original programs for
equitable health policy and practice, with a focus on patient-clinician communication in primary
care. Findings from this conference will have a wide-spread, lasting influence through its
dissemination in the “Case Studies in Social Medicine for Health Equity,” which has already
been accepted for publication in The Lancet. By fostering interdisciplinary collaborations to
reduce health disparities, this project will cultivate cross-sector partnerships, produce original
knowledge on health equity, and promote the dissemination and translation of this knowledge
into novel interventions suited to ameliorate health injustices in the long-term.