First Harvard Symposium on Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities Research in the United States

First Harvard Symposium on Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities Research in the United States

MENTATIONS, Volume XV May 2003

Joan Feinberg Berns, Ph. D.
Director of Development and Communications
Office for Diversity and Community Partnership
Harvard Medical School

     On January 6, 2003, over 25 Project Success alumni/ae, mentors and program supporters brought in the New Year at the annual Project Success Alumni Reunion Dinner held in the Faculty Room of Gordon Hall at Harvard Medical School (HMS).
     The first Symposium of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities Research in the U.S. ever to be held at Harvard brought together more than 200 people at the Harvard School of Public Health on Friday April 11. In fact, an additional 50 people who could not be seated in the Snyder Auditorium, which was filled to capacity, were accommadated in an adjacent room.
     Sponsored by the Harvard Interfaculty Program for Health Systems Improvement (PHSI), the Symposium involved interdisciplinary efforts of faculty from various Harvard Schools--Harvard Medical School (HMS), Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), John F. Kennedy School of Government (KSG), and Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE). Several Harvard offices and centers participated in planning this event: the HMS Minority Faculty Development Program of the Office for Diversity and Community Partnership and the Center of Excellence in Minority Health and Health Disparities; the Harvard Center for Society and Health and the Program to Eliminate Health Disparities at HSPH; and, the Center for Multicultural Mental Health Research at the Cambridge Health Alliance. The key objective of this symposium was to create synergy among graduate students, post-doctoral fellows and faculty by encouraging the collaboration of ideas and by stimulating new challenges in the field of health disparities; from the enthusiastic participation underscored by the energetic exchange of ideas and opinions, it appeared that this objective was fully met.
     The event was organized by an interdisciplinary committee composed of graduate students, post-graduates, and fellows at Harvard University. The two co-chairs were: Debra Joy Perez, a Ph.D. candidate and currently a W.K. Kellogg Fellow in Health Policy Research of the Interfaculty Ph.D. Program in Health Policy at Harvard University's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and Carlotta M. Arthur, Ph.D., a W.K. Kellogg Scholar in Minority Health Disparities of the Department of Health and Social Behavior at HSPH.
     The day-long symposium was structured around four panels, each encompassing distinguished Harvard faculty from many different schools, centers and programs. Following a continental-style breakfast, the day began in earnest with a warm welcome from the two co-chairs of the Symposium's Student Organizing Committee, Ms. Perez and Dr. Arthur. Rushika Fernandopulle, M.D., M.P.P., Executive Director of the Harvard University Interfaculty Program for Health Systems Improvement (PHSI) added his welcoming remarks and gave the opening comments.
     The four panel sessions were each organized around on of four topics: the known literature on health disparities research, the unknown frontiers in the field, investigating what works to reduce these existing disparities, and considering where the next steps might lead.
     The first panel, Health Disparities Research: What We Know, involved a moderator, Carlotta M. Arthur, Ph. D., of HSPH, and two presenters: Ichiro Kawachi, M.D., Ph.D., Professor in the Department of Health and Social Behavior at HSPH and Director of the Harvard Center for Society and Health, and Thomas LaVeist, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Health Policy and Management and Director of the Center for Health Disparities Solutions at Johns Hopkins University. This discussion was followed by comments and questions from the large audience.
     Janice L. Cooper, MPA-MC, a doctoral candidate in the PhD Program in Health Policy at Harvard, was the moderator for the second panel, New Frontiers in Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities Research: What We Don't Know. Four presenters examined different sides of the topic, ranging from an ecosocial perspective to a methodological/statistical analysis, to a study of assimilation and smoking among immigrant populations, to a summation of the report, Unequal Treatment, recently released by the Institute of Medicine.
     The moderator for the third panel, Debra Joy Perez [see above], introduced each of the five panelists in the following order: John Ayanian, MD, MPP, Associate Professor of Medicine and Health Care Policy at HMS and internist at BWH; Joan Y. Reede, MD, MPH, MS, Dean for Diversity and Community Partnership at HMS; Pedro Noguera, PhD, Judith K. Dimon Professor of Communities and Schools at HGSE; Robert Blendon, ScD, MBA, MPH, Professor of Health Policy and Political Analysis at both HSPH and at KSG; and Kalahn Taylor-Clarke, MPH, a PhD candidate in Health Policy at Harvard University. These five panelists addressed the topic: Investigating what works to reduce health disparities and what we need to learn from inequality research in other areas.
     Following an intense Q&A session with the attentive audience, Dr. Fernandopulle moderated the last panel. The participants focused most appropriately on the final question, Where do we go from here? Carlotta Arthur, Janice Cooper and Debra Joy Perez who had served as moderators for the three previous panels, now became panelists, making brief statements. Closing comments were followed by an informan, lively reception.

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