Improving the reporting of racial and ethnic data for quality assessment has been a major focus of the Fund's program. Work by David Nerenz, of Henry Ford Health System, revealed that health plans have the ability to obtain and assemble relevant data on race and ethnicity from various sources, as explained in his 2002 Health Affairs article.⁽²⁰⁾ Government and other funders now recognize that collecting such data is essential if disparities in care are to be detected and addressed. The federal government has produced recommended guidelines on race and ethnicity reporting in public programs, and other health care foundations, including the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, have lent their support. The Fund's work also informed a new initiative by Aetna, which has established one of the first private sector projects to collect race and ethnicity data from health plan participants with a view toward addressing disparities in quality of care.

Raising public and professional awareness of the problems faced by vulnerable populations has also been a consistent theme of the Fund's work. Recent efforts include a series of well-attended briefings on Hispanic health issues, held in Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Washington, D.C., by Elena Rios, M.D., president of the National Hispanic Medical Association. Yvette Roubideaux, M.D., a former Commonwealth/Harvard Minority Health Policy fellow, convened a conference of researchers, policymakers, and health advocates to develop an agenda for improving health care in American Indian and Alaskan Native communities. The program also provided support for the development of a new website,⁽²¹⁾ associated with Massachusetts General Hospital, featuring a search engine and links to useful sources on health disparities and cultural competency.

A particular highlight of the past year was the Women of Color as Leaders in Public Health and Health Policy Conference, held in January 2003 in Washington, D.C. Coordinated by Joan Reede, M.D., of Harvard Medical School, the conference was designed to enhance career and leadership development for women of color within the public health and health policy fields. Presenters included Marilyn Gaston, M.D., former Assistant Surgeon General; Yvonne Maddox, deputy director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development; and Clarice Reid, M.D., former director of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.