USA Health Disparities Research Group Holds Planning Meeting to Discuss Future Goals

Dr. Martha Arrieta (far left), director of research for the University of South Alabama’s Center for Healthy Communities, leads the USA Health Disparities Research Group (HDRG) planning meeting on Oct. 29, 2010. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the group’s future goals and objectives, as well as to define member responsibilities.

HDRG, a multidisciplinary group of university faculty with an interest in health disparities, was initiated after the awarding of an NIH grant to the USA Center for Healthy Communities in 2004. The overall strategy for the Center for Healthy Communities was to implement community based participatory research (CBPR) approaches. To achieve this goal, HDRG was developed.

Dr. Arrieta said HDRG consists of a dedicated core of eight to 10 faculty members, as well as many other faculty members that are involved with HDRG at some level.

The mission of HDRG is to foster interdisciplinary, collaborative research toward eliminating health disparities. The group’s overall goals are to conduct and support health disparities research, garner adequate resources for the HDRG to become self-sustaining, engage community stakeholders in the process of developing research and collaboration, strengthen faculty capabilities to conduct health disparities research, and to translate and disseminate research findings related to health disparities.