R01 / R21 - Health Services Research on Minority Health and Health Disparities

As the Nation’s steward of biomedical and behavioral research, NIH has devoted considerable resources to characterize the root causes of health disparities, uncovering a complex and multi-factorial web of interconnected and overlapping factors (i.e., biological, behavioral, environmental, and societal).  As an important next step, research is needed that capitalizes upon this knowledge about causal pathways to directly and demonstrably contribute to the reduction of health disparities. Of particular importance is research that moves beyond an exclusive focus on the health status of individuals to examine and address how larger systemic factors cause, sustain, or minimize health disparities in communities, regions, and the Nation as a whole. Disparities in health care settings are a clear contributor to disparities in health outcomes. Differences in utilization patterns and quality of care indicators between health disparity populations and the general population have been well documented. More work is needed to understand how best to eliminate these inequities.

The purpose of this FOA is to encourage system-level health services research that can directly contribute to the improvement of minority health and/or the reduction of health disparities in health care settings.

Deadline : April 11, 2017

For more information, see NIH announcement PAR-16-221.