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AAP Bulletin Fall/Winter 2010

Cultural Diversity Caucus:

Francis Lu, MD, 11/16/2010


Significant sessions at the 7th National Conference on Quality Health Care for Culturally Diverse Populations, October 18-21, 2010, Baltimore

Selected by Francis Lu, MD 

I attended this biennial meeting of leaders in the field and discovered a treasure trove of information that is relevant to both our care of culturally diverse patients and our training programs. Go to this website to access descriptions and handout material for the following sessions, which I have selected as particularly significant: http://dx.confex.com/dx/10/webprogram/meeting.html. My editorial comments are in brackets.

Monday, October 18, 2010

Pre-Conference A5*: Advancing Effective Communication, Cultural Competence, and Patient-and Family-centered Care: Research, Policy, and Practice- Understanding New Joint Commission Standards to Improve Patient-Provider Communication [Very important new JCAHO standards and annotations. Deserves careful study.]

Pre-Conference B-2*: What can Health Professions teams do to improve Cross-cultural Communication between Patients, Families & Providers? [Describes the work of the NHLBI-funded National Consortium for Multicultural Education for Health Professionals (Consortium) comprising educators representing 18 U.S. medical schools. Curricular and organizational resources for cultural competence training in UGME and GME are hyperlinked.]

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

A-2*: Health professions societies taking the lead on health disparities reduction [Presentations from representatives of the AMA Commission to End Health Care Disparities, the American Dental Education Association (ADEA), and the American College of Cardiology Coalition to Reduce Racial & Ethnic Disparities in CV Outcomes (credo)]

A-7*: Language barriers and the law: a focus on malpractice claims and how to address language in the pharmacy [This session builds on the many years of outstanding leadership of the National Health Law Program on language access described with resources at: http://www.healthlaw.org/index.php?Itemid=196&id=239&option=com_content&view=article Mara Youdelman has been the key person.]

Poster Session I:

#8: EthnoMed: Integrating Cultural Information into Clinical Practice [EthnoMed is Harborview Medical Center's ethnic medicine website containing medical and cultural information about immigrant and refugee groups. Harborview is managed by the University of Washington. They will accept postings and videos for streaming.]

#18*: Patient Centered Care in the U.S.: Findings from the 2009 National Healthcare Disparities Report [AHRQ issues an annual National Healthcare Quality Report and National Healthcare Disparities Report: www.ahrq.gov/qual/measurix.htm. Essential reading.]

B-2*: Mandating cultural competence - what impact does it have? [The first presentation is about the California mandate for cultural competence training in CME and the second is about web-based trainings on CLAS at www.thinkculturalhealth.org]

B-6*: Federal and state policies to improve access and quality of care for diverse populations [The first presentation “Implications of Health Care Reform for Racial & Ethnic Minorities” is based on a very important report at: http://www.jointcenter.org/hpi/sites/all/files/PatientProtection_PREP_0.pdf. This is an essential reading. The second presentation on California's landmark legislation, SB 853, requiring all health plans and health insurers to provide interpreters, translated materials, and to collect race, ethnicity, and language data.]

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

C-2*: The National Action Plan to Improve Health Literacy: Goals and Strategies [Extremely important session from 5 Federal agencies on this national plan disseminated in May 2010 at www.health.gov/communication/HLActionPlan/pdf/Health_Literacy_Action_Plan.pdf]

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Plenary Session III*: Strategic tools to improve organizational performance on cultural competence and disparities reduction [Janet Corrigan’s presentation “Measurement and Transparency: Keys to Reducing Disparities” on NQF’s cultural competence practices and measures work was among the most important in the entire conference.]

 

AAP Bulletin – Fall/Winter 2010, Page 19-20 of 23