The National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) www.nimhd.nih.gov within NIH has launched an initiative to address disparities in surgical care and outcomes for disadvantaged populations. The new surgical disparities research program will involve collaborations with several NIH institutes and centers, along with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) www.ahrq.gov.
Research has demonstrated that the benefits of surgical procedures are not equal across the population. It has been shown that surgical disparities in the U.S show an increase in surgical mortality rates among patients with lower socioeconomic status regardless of race, age, hospital facility, or insurance status.
These disparities can include higher rates of chronic disabling conditions, greater co-morbidity, greater risk of premature death, as well as poorer quality of life, worse functioning, and prolonged recovery from disease.
One of the priorities will be to use technology to optimize patient education, health literacy, and shared decision-making in a culturally relevant way. Then the goal will be to disseminate technologies and see if these technologies can help to reduce surgical disparities.
Other priorities are to improve patient clinician communication, improve care at facilities with a higher proportion of minority surgical and trauma patients, evaluate the long term effects of acute interventions and rehabilitation within the critical period of injury or illness, and identify expectations for post-operative and post-injury recovery.
Two Notices of Intent to Publish Funding opportunities were issued by NIMHD on April 18, with the estimated application due date to be September 2016. Go to R01 http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notic-files/NOT-MD-16-006.html and to R21 http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-MD-16-005.html to view the documents.