The DC Primary Care Association (DCPCA) seeks funding for a research dissemination conference, """"""""Race, Class and Health: Long and Healthy Lives for All."""""""" The purpose of the event, lasting a day and a half (June 12/13, 2003) is twofold. First, the conference will improve local policymaking and clinical practices in a manner to decrease health disparities. Second, it will increase awareness among national policymakers and the general public of disparities in health care access and health outcomes. Because DC is a microcosm of disparities observed in urban areas across the country, and because it is the nation's capital, the conference is expected to have widespread applicability and to garner the attention of a national audience, including policymakers. It will be planned by DCPCA management in collaboration with the DC Area Health Education Center (representing DC's academic health centers), Maryland and Connecticut PCAs, Families USA, a national nonprofit group advocating health care for all, and the federal Office of Minority Health. An estimated 250 to 300 persons will attend. There will be no cost to participants. The event will be held at Howard University, a historically black institution in DC. Locally, the conference is needed to reduce disparities in access to care and health status in both DC and Maryland, where the contrasts by race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status are stark. Nationally it is needed to raise awareness of health disparities, to motivate national leaders in government, business, and the nonprofit sector to reduce disparities, and to provide policy and clinical strategies for reducing disparities. The core document on which the conference is based is the recently released report from the Institute of Medicine, """"""""Unequal Treatment,"""""""" which summarizes research on health disparities, their causes, and interventions designed to reduce disparities. The conference will offer both Policy and Clinical Tracks tailored to the needs of policymakers and clinicians. In all, 16 sessions will be offered, including two plenary sessions, six Policy and six Clinical Track sessions, and concluding panel discussions for each track, including final recommendations and audience questions. Evaluation forms will include Likert and open-ended items for each session and the conference as a whole. In addition, a telephone survey will be completed 30 days after the conference to determine the applicability to participant worksites.
