African American leaders in the health field will converge at the Congressional Black Caucus' Spring Health Braintrust from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday in the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, D.C., to focus on closing the gaps in health care between African Americans and the rest of the U.S. population.
C-SPAN will air a segment of the conference live at 10:30 a.m. on C-SPAN 1.
The Braintrust is chaired by V.I. Delegate Donna Christian-Christensen. It is the caucus' health policy-making body and serves to define and shape the nation's health care agenda for minorities and under-served populations. It also fights for enhanced education and outreach activities and increased minority representation in health professions.
This year's Braintrust, "Reducing the Disparities: Making the Health Care Delivery System Work for African Americans," will look at factors that contribute to the significant disparities in health status between African Americans and other racial and ethnic groups in the United States.
The Braintrust will target disparities in the following areas:
— HIV/AIDS/substance abuse.
— Heart disease/stroke/diabetes/cancer.
— Infant health/immunizations.
— Violence.
Christensen, the only woman physician in the U.S. Congress, replaced Braintrust founder Rep. Louis Stokes as chair of the event upon his retirement last term.
"Despite the prior fiscal appropriations and program, African Americans are still dying in larger numbers from treatable diseases," Christensen said. "This Braintrust will review the reasons for this disparity and create a plan for action to follow up and revisit the recommendations next Spring.
"If we can remove both the physical and structural barriers that prevent people of color from receiving adequate access to care and treatment our health status would greatly improve."