Center for the Elimination of Minority Health Disparities

The mission of the Center for the Elimination of Minority Health Disparities (CEMHD) is to contribute to the elimination of minority health disparities by

• bringing faculty research expertise to bear on the problem,
• and doing so in partnerships with communities, health care providers, county departments of health and the NYS Department of Health.

The Center focuses on minority health disparities in the smaller cities and towns of New York.  It works toward eliminating minority health disparities by developing capacity in the university’s faculty and in partnering community groups to identify community health concerns and sources of disparities, plan strategies to alleviate them, and test their effectiveness. 

Effective strategies can be adopted by health care providers and health prevention agencies and organizations. (The Center does not implement programs or provide health services.)  It serves to bring the strengths of the university community and minority communities to bear on developing solutions to the problem of minority health disparities, focusing on the problem as it exists in smaller cities and towns of New York. 

The Center for the Elimination of Minority Health Disparities (CEMHD) is a partnership between the State of New York, community groups, hospitals, county health departments, and University at Albany.

The Center is supported by a grant from the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities through their Centers of Excellence program. (Prior to 2009, the center was supported through their EXPORT program. EXPORT stands for Excellence in Partnerships for Community Outreach, Research and Training). The NIH grant to the CEMHD has several goals: 1) to identify community needs, focusing on barriers to utilization of prevention programs and health care; 2) to conduct specific projects in partnerships with affected communities on the causes and solutions to health disparities; 3) to increase our knowledge of health disparities; and 4) to increase the quantity and quality of researchers working on health disparities.

The Center is now composed of four cores or components: Research Training, Community Outreach/Engagement, Research, and Administration.  Each core has specific aims to contribute the overall mission of the Center.