April 2005
Webcast: Does ending collection of data make the problem go away?
International panel to discuss how gathering—or not gathering—statistics shapes what we know about health disparities
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has proposed changing its Current Employment Statistics Survey to stop asking employers for their number of female workers. In 2003, California voters rejected a constitutional initiative that would have prevented the state's agencies from collecting information about people's race and ethnicity. The 2000 U.S. census provided Americans for the first time with an opportunity to check multiple race/ethnicity categories. What do all three situations have in common? They potentially impact the kind of data available to monitor health disparities.
In the final symposium of the "Health Disparities & the Body Politic" series, an international group of speakers will discuss the politics of public health data--both its presence and its absence--and how health statistics systems shape knowledge about disparities.
Webcast URL: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/disparities
International Speakers:
John Fox, Director of Statistics, Department of Health, United Kingdom
François Héran, Director, Institut national d'études démographiques, Paris, France
Vickie Mays, Professor of Clinical Psychology, UCLA, and Director, UCLA Center on Research, Education, Training, and Strategic Communications on Minority Health Disparities
Eduardo Mota, Chief of Health Statistics, Instituto de Saude Coletiva, Brazil
Discussant: Godfrey Woelk, Associate Professor, Department of Community Medicine, College of Health Sciences, University of Zimbabwe
Moderator:
Nancy Krieger, HSPH Associate Professor of Society, Human Development, and Health
Q&A Panelists: Howard Koh, Associate Dean for Public Health Practice, HSPH, and Former Massachusetts Commissioner of Public Health; Robert Blendon, HSPH Professor of Health Policy and Management; Mary Waters, Professor of Sociology, Harvard University; Evelynn Hammonds, Professor of the History of Science and African and African American Studies, Harvard University; David Rehkopf, HSPH Doctoral Candidate
Media who would like to attend should contact Christina Roache at [email protected] or at 617-432-6052.
Organized by the HSPH Working Group on Health Disparities
Sponsors: David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies and the Harvard Center for Society and Health
Co-Sponsors: Boston Public Health Commission; Cherishing Our Hearts and Souls Coalition; Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center--Cancer Disparities Program-in-Development; François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights, Harvard School of Public Health; Harvard Center for Cancer Prevention; Harvard Medical School Office for Diversity and Community Partnership; Institute on Urban Health Research, Northeastern University; Massachusetts Department of Public Health; Massachusetts Public Health Association; Program in Ethics and Health, Harvard Medical School; Program for Health Systems Improvement, Harvard University; and the W.E.B. DuBois Institute for African and African American Research, Harvard University
Harvard School of Public Health is dedicated to advancing the public's health through learning, discovery, and communication. More than 300 faculty members are engaged in teaching and training the 900-plus student body in a broad spectrum of disciplines crucial to the health and well being of individuals and populations around the world. Programs and projects range from the molecular biology of AIDS vaccines to the epidemiology of cancer; from risk analysis to violence prevention; from maternal and children's health to quality of care measurement; from health care management to international health and human rights. For more information on the school visit: www.hsph.harvard.edu.