Aetna Foundation announces two grants to eliminate health and health care disparities

The Aetna Foundation today announced two grants totaling $250,000 as part of its continuing efforts to establish racial and ethnic equity in health and health care. The elimination of health and health care disparities is one of three primary focus areas of the Aetna Foundation’s grant-making.

“Candid discussion about inequities in our health care system and in health outcomes is unfortunately rare and can be difficult to have”

“The Aetna Foundation has been at the forefront of supporting action to advance the science and establish racial and ethnic equity in health care for the better part of a decade through financial support of projects and programs that seek solutions to this persistent problem in our health care system,” said Anne C. Beal, M.D., M.P.H., president, Aetna Foundation, Inc. “Moving forward with these grants to AcademyHealth and the Institute of Medicine, we will be focusing our philanthropic giving on understanding more about the root causes of these disparities and what actions can be taken to impact them.”

Details of the two grants are as follows.

IOM Roundtable on the Promotion of Health Equity and Elimination of Health Disparities

The Aetna Foundation will fund a $150,000 two-year partnership with the National Academy of Sciences / Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) Roundtable on the Promotion of Health Equity and the Elimination of Health Disparities. The IOM is the health arm of the National Academy of Sciences, and is focused on asking and answering the nation’s most pressing questions about health and health care to help those in government and the private sector make informed health decisions by providing evidence upon which they can rely.

This Roundtable was created to stimulate action, advance strategies to reduce disparities, promote health equity, and foster new leadership. Membership includes leaders from the health professions, the federal government, the philanthropic sector, universities, and community groups.

Aetna and the Aetna Foundation view supporting the Roundtable as an opportunity to:

• Discuss current and emerging health disparities issues in a neutral scientific environment with those representing different perspectives;
• Participate and strategically engage with national and international researchers and policy makers focusing on health disparities and health equity; and
• Keep on the cutting edge of emerging topics, activities, and research conducted by fellow Roundtable members.

“Candid discussion about inequities in our health care system and in health outcomes is unfortunately rare and can be difficult to have,” said Karen Anderson, director of the Roundtable on the Promotion of Health Equity and the Elimination of Health Disparities. “Our goal is to help facilitate these difficult conversations and to ensure that we have the right people around the table.”

Expected outcomes from this partnership include the publication of five new workshop summary reports, four meetings and public workshops of the Roundtable, and continued focus on health equity and health disparities issues within the National Academies.

AcademyHealth

The Aetna Foundation also will fund a one-year, $100,000 partnership with AcademyHealth, the preeminent professional society for health services researchers and health policy analysts. AcademyHealth’s mission is to advance the development of health services research and facilitate its use to improve health policy and practice.

In addition to an organizational affiliation, the partnership will include:

• The Health Services Research: Minority Scholars Program enabling 15 students, post doctoral trainees and fellows from under-represented minority groups to attend the AcademyHealth Annual Research Meeting (June 24-25 in Boston), including one pre-conference workshop, the Disparities Interest Group adjunct meeting and mentoring activities;
• A Disparities Webinar Series featuring four webinars on current issues in disparities research, with a focus on new data sources and analytic techniques for assessing disparities. Each webinar is expected to reach 150 participants; and
• Support for the Disparities Interest Group comprising nearly 1,000 researchers, practitioners, policymakers and advocates who are committed to reducing racial and ethnic health disparities and sharing best practices for reducing inequalities in health care access, quality and outcomes.

Expected outcomes include: professional development and mentoring for 15 researchers from under-represented minorities who have an interest in health services and disparities research; dissemination of research on reducing disparities and professional development for researchers studying the issue; and a stronger community of researchers studying disparities in health care quality.

“Disparities research is vital to understanding discrepancies in health care access, cost and quality, and improving health outcomes for minority populations nationwide,” said AcademyHealth President and CEO W. David Helms, Ph.D. “The Aetna Foundation’s generous support of the Minority Scholars Program enables AcademyHealth to provide ongoing training and support for young researchers with an interest in disparities research and to encourage researchers from minority populations currently underrepresented in our profession to consider a career in this important multi-disciplinary field.”