Racial–ethnic minorities receive lower quality and intensity of health care compared with whites across a wide range of preventive,
diagnostic, and therapeutic services and disease entities. These disparities in health care contribute to continuing racial–ethnic
disparities in the burden of illness and death. Several national medical organizations and the Institute of Medicine have
issued position papers and recommendations for the elimination of health care disparities. However, physicians in practice
are often at a loss for how to translate these principles and recommendations into specific interventions in their own clinical
practices. This paper serves as a blueprint for translating principles for the elimination of racial–ethnic disparities in
health care into specific actions that are relevant for individual clinical practices. We describe what is known about reducing
racial–ethnic disparities in clinical practice and make recommendations for how clinician leaders can apply this evidence
to transform their own practices.
KEY WORDS racial disparities - race - ethnicity - health care delivery - cultural competence - ethnic groups - continental population groups
Funding: Drs. Washington (#RCD-00-017), Saha (#RCD-00-028), and Moody (#RCD-03-183) are supported by grants from the Department
of Veterans Affairs, Health Services Research and Development Service. Dr. Saha is supported by a Generalist Physician Faculty
Scholar award from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Drs. Horowitz (#P60 MD00270) and Brown (#P20MD00148) are supported
by grants from the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities. Dr. Brown also received support from the University
of California, Los Angeles, Resource Center in Minority Aging Research (#AG02004) and the Beeson Career Development Award
(#AG26748). Dr. Cooper is supported by a grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (K24HL083113).