Compiling the evidence: the National Healthcare Disparities Reports

Disparities in health care have been described extensively in the literature. The next step in resolving this national problem is to develop the necessary infrastructure for monitoring and tracking disparities. The congressionally mandated National Healthcare Disparities Report begins to build this infrastructure. The 2003 report addressed many of the methodological challenges inherent in measuring disparities. The recently released 2004 report continues the process by summarizing the status of U.S. health care disparities and beginning to track changes over time. Both reports emphasize the need to integrate activities to reduce disparities and to improve the quality of health care.