UTRGV International Conference on Health Disparities: Treatment and Recovery from Opioid and Alcohol Use Disorders and Related Comorbidities (ICHD-Recover)

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ABSTRACT The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV), the second largest Hispanic-serving institution in the nation, founded the School of Medicine (SOM) in 2015 to address the health needs of the underrepresented minority (URM) populations of south Texas on the US-Mexico border. In 2017, as part of its mission, the SOM began hosting an annual research conference on health disparities. The conference was the first of its kind in the Rio Grande Valley (RGV). To date, more than half the participants have been URMs and women. Each year since 2017 UTRGV has held a health disparities research conference that has attracted more than 300 attendees each year. With expected participation from both US and Mexico border institutions, the UTRGV-SOM will host the 5th and 6th conferences on September 9-10, 2022, and September 8-9, 2023. The title will be “International Conference on Health Disparities: Treatment and Recovery from Opioid and Alcohol Use Disorders and Related Comorbidities (ICHD-Recover).” Opioid and alcohol use disorders are significant national public health problems and are particularly severe among URM populations. The ICHD-Recover has the following Specific Aims: 1) To accelerate collaborations among researchers at the national level and across the U.S.-Mexico border, 2) To facilitate engagement and collaboration with community stakeholders in research and implementation of culturally relevant interventions, thus obtaining community support for research on substance use disorders, 3) To stimulate new lines of research addressing URM health with a focus on opioid and alcohol use disorders and related comorbidities, 4) To motivate trainees from URM populations to engage in substance abuse research, and 5) To disseminate research findings from the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) to researchers and health policy makers in other border regions and states and the nation. The proposed conferences will include nationally known speakers, plenary sessions, abstracts, and posters presented by students, researchers, fellows, faculty, and professionals from the U.S. and neighboring Mexican border institutions. Seventy five percent of our speakers are from URM. Funds will be used to 1) invite leading researchers, health disparity experts and young scientists, from the U.S. border regions and Mexico, and 2) implement the proposed scientific agenda over two days, thus showcasing community-engaged research in which researchers and practitioners address opioid and alcohol use disorder health disparities in URM populations. The ICHD-Recover closely aligns with the NIH mission, which is to support global opioid and alcohol use disorders and health disparities research to advance scientific knowledge and aid all those affected to recover from the consequences of opioid and alcohol misuse. The ICHD-Recover conferences will, 1) emphasize how the medical research community can most effectively interact with community stakeholders, considering the social determinants of health to inform the design and implementation of community intervention programs, and 2) address health disparities in persons suffering from the consequences of opioid and alcohol misuse and associated comorbidities in URM populations.