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[Rick Bevins]

NIH ANNOUNCES INSTITUTE ON MINORITY HEALTH AND HEALTH DISPARITIES
Transition from center to institute highlights expanded
responsibilities

The National Institutes of Health announces the transition of the
National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NCMHD) to
the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities
(NIMHD). The transition gives the institute a more defined role in
the NIH's research agenda against health disparities, which it
defines
as differences in the incidence, prevalence, mortality, and burden
of
diseases and other adverse health conditions that exist among
specific
population groups.

The move authorizes the NIMHD to plan, coordinate, review and
evaluate
all minority health and health disparities research activities
conducted and supported by the NIH institutes and centers, and it
reaffirms the authority of the NIMHD director as the primary federal
official with responsibility for coordinating such activities. Under
its previous designation, the center coordinated the health
disparities research activities of NIH's other institutes and
centers.
The re-designation was made possible by the Affordable Care Act.

"We have made some progress towards eliminating health disparities.
Yet there is much unfinished business," said John Ruffin, Ph.D.,
NIMHD
director. "We have to reexamine our strategy and accelerate the pace
through innovative, sustainable and results-oriented approaches.
Our
goal is to establish an integrated research enterprise, building
upon
lessons learned and working with our many partners to address the
complexity of health disparities."

The law transfers all of the responsibilities of the NCMHD provided
under the Minority Health and Health Disparities Research and
Education Act to the new institute. This includes responsibility for
coordinating the development of the NIH health disparities research
agenda. In addition, it expands the eligibility criteria of the
NIMHD
Research Endowment program to include active NIMHD Centers of
Excellence.

"I congratulate Dr. Ruffin and his staff on the center becoming an
institute," Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., NIH director, said.
"This change by Congress reflects the importance of studying the
issue
of health disparities with an even greater intensity. We need to
learn much more about what causes disparities -- including the role
of society, the environment, and genes, -- and to find effective
ways
of overcoming or changing them."

The transition to an institute is the culmination of years of work
to
bring attention to and find solutions for the unequal burden of
illness affecting minority, rural and poor populations in this
country. Over the last two decades, NIMHD has made significant
strides
towards ending health disparities. Collaboration with other NIH
institutes and centers as well as other federal agencies has been
the
hallmark of its success as it evolved from the Office of Research on
Minority Health to NCMHD and now an institute.

The NIMHD through its predecessor NCMHD, has supported the training
of
more than 2,000 health professionals with an interest in health
disparities research through loan repayment awards. It has funded
more
than 88 centers of excellence around the nation to conduct research
on
health disparities in many disciplines and on a variety of topics.
NIMHD assisted academic institutions in developing their capacity to
conduct biomedical research with an emphasis on health disparities;
community-based participatory research was introduced to the
scientific community as a viable approach to studying health
disparities with the involvement of the community in all aspects of
research; and the center organized and sponsored the first NIH
Science
of Eliminating Health Disparities summit to review the state of
health
disparities research. Among the research priorities for the new
institute are the social determinants of health, patient-centered
outcomes research; faith-based approaches to health disparities; and
improving the participation of health disparity populations in
clinical trials.

NIMHD is a part of NIH that promotes minority health, conducts and
supports research, training, research infrastructure, fosters
emerging
programs, disseminates information, and reaches out to minority and
other health disparity communities. For more information on the
Institute's programs, see <http://www.ncmhd.nih.gov>.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) -- The Nation's Medical
Research Agency -- includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a
component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is
the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting basic,
clinical and translational medical research, and it investigates the
causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For
more information about NIH and its programs, visit <www.nih.gov>.

##

This NIH News Release is available online at:
<http://www.nih.gov/news/health/sep2010/nimhd-27.htm>.

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