Over 600 attendees assembled in Seattle, Washington for the Fifth National Conference on Quality Health Care for Culturally Diverse Populations: Building the Essential Link between Quality, Cultural Competence and Disparities Reduction. Attendees traveled from nearly 40 states and 8 countries including Japan, Australia, Canada and various European countries. Participants included a broad array of practitioners, advocates, government officials, community-based organization representatives, foundation officers, health care administrators, and academic scholars. Seventeen public and private agencies and organizations provided funding for the conference including the USDHHS Office of Minority Health; The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; W.K. Kellogg Foundation; The Commonwealth Fund; The California Endowment; GlaxoSmithKline; Kaiser Permanente and the Washington Health Foundation. (For a full listing of conference sponsors, please visit the conference website.)
Julia Puebla Fortier, Director of Resources for Cross-Cultural Health Care,
and co-founder of the Conference series
Dennis Andrulis, Director of the Center for Health Equality,
and co-founder of the Conference series
The Honorable Ron Sims, King County (Washington) Executive, welcomes participants
Margaret O’Kane, President of the National Committee for Quality Assurance,
presents the keynote address
With over 200 presenters, the conference focused on the importance of integrating issues concerning culture and language into quality of care. In this context, it featured a wide range of topics, including cultural competence training and curriculum development, building community and institutional partnerships, emergency preparedness, certification of medical interpreters, funding for language assistance programs, and models of culturally competent care, which were discussed in workshop panels, roundtable discussions, and “Peer-to-Peer” sessions featuring experts participating in moderated discussions. Preconference sessions focused on intensive skills building training during 3 hour workshops. Other conference activities included a Resource Center featuring poster presentations, a technology salon, and formal exhibits, a film festival and a performance by Tony Award Winner Sarah Jones of her W.K. Kellogg Foundation commissioned one-woman show, A Right to Care, which explores the ways in which ethnic, racial and economic health disparities impact people’s daily lives.
Nancy Lang, President/CEO of Cultural Horizons, with Dennis Andrulis at Conference reception
Dennis Andrulis with Sarah Jones, after her performance of A Right to Care
Comments from attendees confirmed the value of the conference:
- The expertise present and the wonderful caring people it attracts is what makes this conference special.
- [The conference] charged my batteries. It helped me to understand issues such as racism [and provided an] update on research, projects taking place at a national level.
- The workshops included panelists who reflected the communities they serve. Quality of panelists! without exception [was the best part of the conference].
- The performance of A Right To Care was tremendous. Many, many thanks for the whole experience.
- I am impressed with how well organized this conference was. Content was great!
To learn more about the conference series, including bios and abstracts for all conference presenters and copies of the PowerPoint presentations from the plenary sessions, please visit the conference website .
Conference audience applauds Sarah Jones performance