By Chelsea Reynolds, AHCJ graduate research assistant
Despite spending more money on health care each year than any other country, the United States' quality of available care and measured health outcomes remain low when compared with other high-income nations worldwide, said Christopher Murray, M.D., D. Phil, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. The disparities in care provided by our nation's health care system and the overall health of our citizens also continue to widen, he said.
These growing health disparities were the topic of an hour-long discussion at the Health Journalism 2010 conference in Chicago. Murray served on an expert panel alongside Ernest Moy, M.D., M.P.H., medical officer for Center for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and Juan Carlos Caicedo, M.D., director of the Hispanic Transplant Program at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago.
The speakers explained how journalists could use available statistics on racial and ethnic health disparities to raise awareness of underserved and unhealthy populations. The panelists emphasized that journalists should give attention to these disparities because Health Policy alone will not fix the gaps in local health care.
"Expansion of health insurance in U.S. will do something about poor health performance and disparities, but it won't fix the whole problem," Murray said.
A large percentage of deaths and disparities could be minimized through local health programs and community-based interventions that address the specific needs of ethnic populations, he said.
Moy also pointed out that while publicizing information published in national health reports – such as the National Healthcare Quality Report and the National Healthcare Disparities Report – is an important tool for raising awareness of health disparities, synthesizing and clarifying that information is integral.
"We have to translate this information," he said.
Translation also is a critical tool in decreasing health care disparities within specific primary care facilities, Caicedo said. He suggests that medical care providers use patients' native language when communicating information about their medical status.
"Hearing the information in the native language helps prevent the fear of people," and increases understanding of medical advice from the practitioner, he said.
Most importantly, journalists should remember that they set the public's information-seeking agenda. If reporters increase coverage of disparities in health care, no doubt the public will express increased interest in the issue.
"Awareness is obviously the first step in trying to find solutions," Murray said.
