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"Team America." is what required for resolving nation's health disparity issues, says Deputy Assistant Secretary of Minority Health

Garth Graham, the Department of Health and Human Services' Deputy Assistant Secretary of Minority Health, during National Health IT Week delivered a speech which emphasaizes on deploying IT resources to reduce care disparities in the poor and minority populations. National Health IT Week, a weeklong forum designated for providers, vendors and other health organizations to raise awareness of the importance of health IT discusses the implications of Health IT under various scenarios.

Graham during his speech indicated the need for a "Team America" wherein all Americans have to work  together for the success of the health reform and the federal government can't be expected to solve the nation's health disparity issues on its own."Segments of poor rural Americans have a life expectancy of 15-17 years less than wealthy, urban Americans," Graham said during a Wednesday morning keynote speech on Capitol Hill. "Health disparities for minorities are growing as well, but the greatest gap right now is between the rich and the poor.". "The fact is that minorities are more likely to look for health information on the Web,". That creates an opportunity for health technologists to reduce health disparities. However, the government can be directive but cannot do
it alone." he added.

Graham points out that the rural healthcare providers are facing difficulties due to the lack of IT tools that their urban counterparts take for granted. The HIT provisions of ARRA (The HITECH Act) emphasizes data collection on ethnicity, race and gender in order to better document care disparities. He insisted that the collection and analysis of data is critical to improving the quality of care for minorities and the poor. "Join in, join something, to improve the lives of all Americans," he proclaimed.

After the delivery of his speech, he was asked about the possibility of mobile technology to improve patient care.  "(Hurricane) Katrina proved there is value in mobile technology when trying to reach the health needs of minorities," he said. "Seventy-five percent of those affected by Katrina had access to a cell phone." Understanding the data builds the science," he added. "The science will drive the improvement of public health. Telemedicine should be used everywhere, not just rural areas. It is important and we will see new initiatives probably next month."he concluded.

Source: Healthcare IT News

You can have more discussions about the role of HIT resources in reducing care disparities in our Healthcare Informatics Group