MINORITY TRAINEE RESEARCH FORUM

描述（由申请人提供）：非洲裔美国人、西班牙裔美国人、美洲原住民、夏威夷原住民、阿拉斯加原住民和太平洋岛民的健康状况比美国白人差。在美国，种族和族裔群体之间的健康状况差异已被描述为一系列广泛的疾病、状况和结果。上述少数民族的婴儿死亡率不成比例地高，儿童疫苗接种率较低，可治疗肿瘤的诊断较晚，心血管疾病和糖尿病的患病率较高，寿命比白人短。疾病发病率的差距已经记录多年，并且一直存在。人们普遍认为，这种健康差距是美国在工业化国家中健康状况排名较低的根本原因，这促使克林顿总统于1998年发起了“种族和族裔健康差距倡议”，制定了到2010年消除这些差距的全国目标。自克林顿总统发起健康差距倡议以来，每个NIH研究所/中心都制定了一项战略计划，通过公共教育、培养少数民族研究人员的新培训项目和在每个研究所的法定授权范围内为影响健康差异人群的疾病研究提供新的资金，来改善被忽视的少数民族美国人的健康和生活质量。NIH总体战略计划的核心是(1)增加进入生物医学管道的未被充分代表的学生数量，以及(2)识别、展示、培养和培训已经在生物医学管道中未被充分代表的少数民族。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, Native-Americans, Native- Hawaiians, Alaska-Natives, and Pacific-Islanders suffer poorer health than White Americans. Differences in health status across racial and ethnic groups in the U.S. have been described for a wide array of diseases, conditions and outcomes. The aforementioned minority populations experience disproportionately higher infant mortality, lower rates of childhood vaccination, later diagnosis of treatable neoplasm, a higher prevalence of cardiovascular disease and diabetes, and shorter life spans than the White population. The gap in disease rates has been documented for years, and has persisted. This health disparities picture, generally acknowledged as the basis for the country's low health status ranking among industrial nations, prompted President Clinton in 1998 to launch the Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities Initiative, which set a national goal of eliminating these disparities by 2010. In the time period since President Clinton launched the health disparities initiative, each NIH Institute/Center has developed a strategic plan to improve the health and quality of life for underrepresented minority Americans through public education, new training programs to produce minority researchers and new funding for research on diseases impacting health disparities populations within each Institute's statutory mandate. Central to the NIH's overall strategic plan, are initiatives to (1) increase the numbers of underrepresented students entering the biomedical pipeline, and (2) identify, showcase, nurture and train underrepresented minorities already in the biomedical pipeline. In order to increase the number of scientists addressing the health disparities issue, the Minority Trainee Research Forum (MTRF) was developed as a longitudinal vehicle to identify, showcase, nurture and offer further training opportunities to underrepresented minorities in the biomedical pipeline. This national invitational scientific meeting allows the serious trainees at every level of the pipeline to orally present their research, stand in the poster session, and receive an award for their research achievements. Each year, a national abstract competition generates 72 winners in six categories: 12 high school trainees, 12 college trainees, 12 M.D. trainees, 12 M.D./Ph.D. trainees, 12 Ph.D. trainees and 12 postdoctoral fellows. The grant has permitted the establishment of a national registry of minority trainees in the pipeline which academia, industry and the NIH can draw on to stock initiatives designed to eliminate health disparities.