Building a Diverse Workforce and Thinkforce to Reduce Health Disparities

Richard Yanagihara¹, Marla J Berry¹, Monica J Carson², Sandra P Chang¹, Heather Corliss³, Marc B Cox⁴, Georges Haddad⁵, Christine Hohmann⁶, Scott T Kelley³, Eun Sook Yu Lee⁷, Bruce G Link², Richard J Noel Jr⁸, Julie Pickrel³, James T Porter⁸, Gregory J Quirk⁹, Temesgen Samuel¹⁰, Jonathan K Stiles¹¹, Angela U Sy¹, Deborah A Taira¹, Mary Jo Trepka¹², Fernando Villalta¹³, Thomas E Wiese¹⁴

Affiliations

¹ University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI 96813, USA.
² University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521, USA.
³ San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 92182, USA.
⁴ University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX 79968, USA.
⁵ Howard University, Washington, DC 20059, USA.
⁶ Morgan State University, Baltimore, MD 21251, USA.
⁷ Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, Tallahassee, FL 32307, USA.
⁸ Ponce Health Sciences University, Ponce, PR 00716, USA.
⁹ University of Puerto Rico Medical Sciences Campus, San Juan, PR 00936, USA.
¹⁰ Tuskegee University, Tuskegee, AL 36088, USA.
¹¹ Morehouse School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA 30310, USA.
¹² Florida International University, Miami, FL 33199, USA.
¹³ Meharry Medical College, Nashville, TN 37208, USA.
¹⁴ Xavier University of Louisiana, New Orleans, LA 70125, USA.

PMID: 33562262
PMCID: PMC7915161
DOI: 10.3390/ijerph18041569

Building a Diverse Workforce and Thinkforce to Reduce Health Disparities

Richard Yanagihara et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021.

. 2021 Feb 7;18(4):1569.

doi: 10.3390/ijerph18041569.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI 96813, USA.
² University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521, USA.
³ San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 92182, USA.
⁴ University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX 79968, USA.
⁵ Howard University, Washington, DC 20059, USA.
⁶ Morgan State University, Baltimore, MD 21251, USA.
⁷ Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, Tallahassee, FL 32307, USA.
⁸ Ponce Health Sciences University, Ponce, PR 00716, USA.
⁹ University of Puerto Rico Medical Sciences Campus, San Juan, PR 00936, USA.
¹⁰ Tuskegee University, Tuskegee, AL 36088, USA.
¹¹ Morehouse School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA 30310, USA.
¹² Florida International University, Miami, FL 33199, USA.
¹³ Meharry Medical College, Nashville, TN 37208, USA.
¹⁴ Xavier University of Louisiana, New Orleans, LA 70125, USA.

PMID: 33562262
PMCID: PMC7915161
DOI: 10.3390/ijerph18041569

Abstract

The Research Centers in Minority Institutions (RCMI) Program was congressionally mandated in 1985 to build research capacity at institutions that currently and historically recruit, train, and award doctorate degrees in the health professions and health-related sciences, primarily to individuals from underrepresented and minority populations. RCMI grantees share similar infrastructure needs and institutional goals. Of particular importance is the professional development of multidisciplinary teams of academic and community scholars (the "workforce") and the harnessing of the heterogeneity of thought (the "thinkforce") to reduce health disparities. The purpose of this report is to summarize the presentations and discussion at the RCMI Investigator Development Core (IDC) Workshop, held in conjunction with the RCMI Program National Conference in Bethesda, Maryland, in December 2019. The RCMI IDC Directors provided information about their professional development activities and Pilot Projects Programs and discussed barriers identified by new and early-stage investigators that limit effective career development, as well as potential solutions to overcome such obstacles. This report also proposes potential alignments of professional development activities, targeted goals and common metrics to track productivity and success.

Keywords: RCMI; best practices; mentoring; thinkforce heterogeneity; workforce diversity.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

References

1. Dankwa-Mullan I., Rhee K.B., Williams K., Sanchez I., Sy F.S., Stinson N., Jr., Ruffin J. The science of eliminating health disparities: Summary and analysis of the NIH Summit recommendations. Am. J. Public Health. 2010;100(Suppl. 1):S12–S18. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2010.191619. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
1. Pérez-Stable E.J., Collins F.S. Science visioning in minority health and health disparities. Am. J. Public Health. 2019;109(Suppl. 1):S5. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2019.304962. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
1. Alvidrez J., Castille D., Laude-Sharp M., Rosario A., Tabor D. The National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities research framework. Am. J. Public Health. 2019;109(Suppl. 1):S16–S20. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2018.304883. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
1. Fleming E.S., Perkins J., Easa D., Conde J.G., Baker R.S., Southerland W.M., Dottin R., Benabe J.E., Ofili E.O., Bond V.C., et al. Addressing health disparities through multi-institutional, multidisciplinary collaboratories. Ethn. Dis. 2008;18(Suppl. 2):S2. - PMC - PubMed
1. Ofili E.O., Tchounwou P.B., Fernandez-Repollet E., Yanagihara R., Akintobi T.H., Lee J.E., Malouhi M., Garner S.T., Jr., Hayes T.T., Baker A.R., et al. The Research Centers at Minority Institutions (RCMI) Translational Research Network: Building and sustaining capacity for multi-site basic biomedical, clinical and behavioral research. Ethn. Dis. 2019;29:135–144. doi: 10.18865/ed.29.S1.135. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

Actions

MeSH terms

Actions
Actions
Actions
Actions
Actions
Actions

Grants and funding

LinkOut - more resources

Full Text Sources
Other Literature Sources
- scite Smart Citations

Save citation to file

Email citation

Add to Collections

Add to My Bibliography

Your saved search

Create a file for external citation management software

Your RSS Feed

Building a Diverse Workforce and Thinkforce to Reduce Health Disparities

Affiliations

Building a Diverse Workforce and Thinkforce to Reduce Health Disparities

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

Conflict of interest statement

References

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding

LinkOut - more resources

Full Text Sources

Other Literature Sources