Increasing the Capacity of Health Sciences to Address Health Disparities

In order to create a cohort of investigators who are engaged in health disparities research, scholarship, and practice, and to increase the amount of funding in the university that is invested in research focused on reducing health disparities, the San Diego EXPORT Center implemented 2 major initiatives: (1) the support of underrepresented minority (URM) junior faculty development and (2) the funding for pilot research grants in health disparities. This paper describes the activities employed by the center and summarizes the outcomes of these two initiatives. Ninety-five percent (18 of 19) URM junior faculty completed the faculty development program, and 83.3% (15 of 18) of the completers are advancing in their academic careers at University of California San Diego (UCSD) and are teaching, working with populations at risk and/or conducting research in health disparities. EXPORT awarded 7 investigators a total of $429 186 to conduct pilot research, and 71.4% (5/7) have now obtained $4.7 million in independent extramural funding. The San Diego EXPORT Center has increased the research capacity, strengthened the infrastructure for health disparities research, and created a cohort of successful URM junior faculty who are advancing in their academic careers. These investigators are already changing the climate at UCSD by their leadership activities, research focus, peer-networking, and mentoring of students.