The Drexel University School of Public Health, along with the Resources for Cross Cultural Health Care and the Office of Minority Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, co-hosted the Sixth National Conference on Quality Health Care for Culturally Diverse Populations from September 21 – 24, 2008 in Minneapolis, MN. The conference is one of the most respected and well-supported conferences on cultural competence and health disparities reduction in the United States.
Jonathan Purtle, a student and staff member at the School of Public Health, kept a daily journal of his experience at the conference. His reports can be found at: Conference Journal.
More nearly 700 attendees from North America and across the globe attended this year’s conference, which has been held biennially since 1998. This year’s theme was "Partnerships for the future: Supporting practitioners and advancing the field through innovation, policy and research."
"The Twin Cities region has a long tradition of welcoming refugees and immigrants, and is home to many innovative programs and policies for delivering healthcare in culturally and linguistically appropriate ways," said Dennis P. Andrulis, PhD, the director of the Center for Health Equality at the Drexel University School of Public Health in Philadelphia, PA. "We were excited to bring the conference to an area with such a strong commitment to improving the health of all Americans."
The Sixth National Conference on Quality Health Care for Culturally Diverse Populations looked at the national and global trends in health care and immigration, and focused efforts to:
- Address the needs and concerns that affect day-to-day practice at the clinical, organizational and community level.
- Continue the integration of cultural competence and disparity reduction into mainstream health care priorities.
- Develop a vision for advancing the field.
The conference featured more than 250 presentations in a variety of formats including pre-conference training sessions, plenary panels, roundtable discussions, and workshops, and also included a film festival and resource center with exhibits and poster presentations. For a complete list of conference sessions, presentation abstracts, and presenters, please visit www.diversityrxconference.org/webprogram.
About the Conference:
Since the first conference was held in New York City in 1998, the goal of improving health care for culturally diverse populations has moved from the margins to the mainstream of health care. In recognition of the tenth anniversary of the conference series, the goal of the Sixth National Conference on Quality Health Care for Culturally Diverse Populations was to assess the progress made in both practice and policy, and to chart a course for the future that builds on the field’s strengths of grassroots and national-level innovation, collaboration and information sharing.
For more on the conference, visit www.diversityrxconference.org.
For more on the host organizations, visit www.publichealth.drexel.edu/che, www.diversityrx.org/html/wercch.htm and www.omhrc.gov.