BACKGROUND

Despite overall improvements in health in the United States, there continue to be substantial health disparities within ethnic/racial minority populations (e.g., African-Americans, Hispanics, Native-Americans, Asians) and underserved majority populations. These disparities are believed to be the result of a complex interaction of many variables, including biological factors, the environment, patients’ health behaviors, and inadequate provider training. Greater efforts are needed to develop effective and efficient methods to reduce and ultimately eliminate these disparities. The Center for the Enhancement of Healthcare Training and Outcomes (CEHTO) is a biopsychosocial training program for medical, nursing, and graduate students, other prospective health care professionals, and faculty at the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences (USUHS). An effective infrastructure for Project EXPORT (Excellence in Partnerships for Community Outreach, Research on Disparities in Health and Training), CEHTO was established to optimize patient adherence and treatment outcomes by enhancing health providers’ interpersonal and communication skills with diverse patients, educating practitioners about health disparities, and highlighting the importance of establishing interactive patient-provider relationships.

Who we are

The Uniformed Services University Center for Health Disparities (USUCHD) in collaboration with the University of Maryland, Eastern Shore (UMES), is a non-profit organization newly funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NCMHD). This grant is administered by the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the advancement of the Military Medicine.

The Uniformed Services University (USU) is the nation's only federal health sciences educational facility.

In 1979, under the sponsorship of the late congressman F. Edward Hebert, from Lousiana, Congress enacted the Uniformed Services Health Professions Revitalization Act, authorizing the establishment of the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences (USUHS).

Already a leader in the arena of health disparities, USUHS has incorporated issues of cultural competencies into the curiculum for health care professional students and currently offers biomedical research opportunities for minority undergraduate students.

The University of Maryland, Eastern Shore (UMES) nestled away on the Eastern Shore, was founded in 1886 as a historically Black University.

As a member of the University of Maryland system, the campus is fully accredited and offers a variety of degree programs at the baccalaureate, master's and doctoral level with a commitment to providing quality education.