Preface

It is our extreme honor to serve as the guest editors for this special issue of the Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved. This supplemental issue includes peerreviewed manuscripts that build on research presented at the 12th Research Centers in Minority Institutions (RCMI) International Symposium on Health Disparities held in December 2010, entitled Bridging the Gap between Disparity and Equity: New Minds, New Methods.

The mission of the RCMI Program in the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is to expand the national capability for conducting research in the health sciences by providing competitive grant support to predominantly minority institutions that award doctorate degrees in the health professions or the health-related sciences. These institutions historically have trained professionals from diverse backgrounds who provide health care to minority and other medically under-served populations and are uniquely positioned to engage these populations in biomedical research and in the translation of research advances into culturally appropriate, measurable, and sustained improvements in health outcomes.

Over the course of 25 years, NCRR has funded 21 academic institutions, including 10 graduate schools, seven medical schools, three schools of pharmacy, and one school of veterinary medicine via the RCMI Program. Further, it should be noted that currently five of the RCMI grantee institutions are partners in NCRR's Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) Program. Research by investigators at RCMI grantee institutions is focused on cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, cancer, kidney disease, infant mortality, HIV/AIDS, and other diseases that disproportionately affect minority and other medically underserved and poor populations.

Several Institutes and Centers at the NIH have facilitated the RCMI Program's ability to provide research resources that are required to improve the health of Americans through both the conduct of biomedical research and developing the scientific workforce. Collaborative relationships with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; National Institute on Aging; National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism; National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases; National Cancer Institute; Eunice W. Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development; National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases; National Institute on Drug Abuse; National Eye Institute; National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; National Human Genome Research Institute; National Institute of Mental Health; and the National Institute for Minority Health and Health Disparities have been critical to the RCMI Program's contributions to the NIH mission of extending healthy life and reducing the burdens of illness and disability through the application of knowledge gained from scientific research.

The research highlighted in this supplement exemplifies the RCMI Program's continuing commitment to research that will expedite the translation of research advances from the bench, to the clinic, and ultimately to improved health outcomes for every member of our society.