106000-106036

HEALTH AND SAFETY CODE
SECTION 106000-106036




106000.  The Urban Community Health Institute: Centers to Eliminate
Health Disparities is hereby established at the Charles R. Drew
University of Medicine and Science to address the problem of
disparate health care in the Los Angeles County Service Planning Area
(SPA 6) and other multicultural communities that have the worst
health care status indicators, medical outcomes, and death rates in
Los Angeles County. The institute shall be organized into three
clinical centers and a shared resource core.



106005.  (a) The duties of the institute shall include both of the
following:
   (1) Designing and conducting a series of complementary projects to
eliminate racial, ethnic, cultural, and linguistic health
disparities through culturally sensitive preventive health education,
health risk appraisal, risk factor screening, and programs to
facilitate appropriate medical followup and treatment.
   (2) Providing integrated leadership in developing, implementing,
evaluating, and sustaining services and programmatic partnerships
between the scientific disciplines of the Charles R. Drew University
of Medicine and Science, community-based organizations, and agencies
in the public sector.
   (b) The objectives of the institute shall include all of the
following:
   (1) Strengthening partnerships among community-based organizations
in multicultural areas in the vicinity of Los Angeles.
   (2) Building the capacity for community service of the Charles R.
Drew University of Medicine and Science and local community-based
organizations while addressing specific community health care issues
using a broadly based interdisciplinary integrative community service
model of health care.
   (3) Developing a well-defined central focus and an efficient and
cost effective organizational structure in which each project of the
institute is related to the shared resource core.
   (c) The institute shall employ the following strategies to achieve
its objectives:
   (1) Assemble a multidisciplinary cadre of health professionals,
public health experts, and community health workers to operate the
clinical centers and shared resource core and implement community
service programs, and provide the infrastructure to support the
development, implementation, and evaluation of community-based
programs to eliminate health disparities.
   (2) Establish the administrative, educational, methodological,
computational, and communication infrastructure, including personnel,
facilities, and technology, to support the activities of the
institute.
   (3) Bring the diverse scientific and governmental resources of the
community, local organizations, public sector, and the Charles R.
Drew University of Medicine and Science together in an integrated
effort to eliminate health disparities.
   (4) Gather local and regional surveillance data and conduct
primary and secondary data collection to assess the extent, severity,
clinical characteristics, causes, and solutions to the problem of
disparities in health outcomes, disease progression, morbidity, and
mortality of stroke and hypertension, obesity and nutrition, and
HIV/AIDS.
   (5) Implement community-focused interventions and demonstration
projects to eliminate disparities in the evaluation and treatment of
stroke and hypertension, obesity and nutrition, and HIV/AIDS, based
on information from the work of the institute and local and regional
resources.
   (6) Apply population-based sciences, including epidemiology,
outcome assessment, and informatics, to projects that address risk
factors as well as behavioral, environmental, clinical, and
biological contributors to disparities in stroke and hypertension,
obesity, diabetes, and HIV/AIDS.
   (7) Serve as a community resource for technical assistance and
training in the communication and dissemination of information, and
for the synthesis, interpretation, and dissemination of health
indicator data and public health information relevant to diverse
communities.
   (8) Facilitate the development of lasting academic and community
partnerships that promote healthy lifestyles, prevent disease, reduce
risk factors for disease, and increase ongoing access to culturally
appropriate health care for stroke and hypertension, obesity,
diabetes, and HIV/AIDS.


106010.  (a) The clinical centers described in Section 106000 shall
include the Stroke and Hypertension Center, the Obesity and Nutrition
Center, and the HIV/AIDS Center.
   (b) The centers shall target and address illnesses that are
related biologically and clinically and are characterized by outcomes
that are disparate between minority populations and that of the
overall community.
   (c) The centers shall initially focus on health promotion, disease
prevention, health risk assessment, and health screening services in
connection with target medical conditions in minority populations
that are experiencing disparate outcomes in relation to the overall
community in regard to target conditions. However, over time, each
center shall develop a portfolio of projects that also address these
target conditions in all racial, ethnic, and cultural groups.



106015.  (a) The Stroke and Hypertension Center shall initially work
in partnership with the American Heart Association in developing
culturally appropriate, communitywide stroke awareness and training
programs.
   (b) The center shall also work towards providing additional
services, including a stroke screening program directed by the
Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, using carotid
ultrasound testing.



106020.  The Obesity and Nutrition Center shall work in partnership
with local elementary and middle schools to conduct culturally
appropriate antiobesity, diet, nutrition, and exercise education
programs, coupled with structured exercise and weight reduction
activities.



106025.  The HIV/AIDS Center shall conduct prevention, education,
and counseling programs in high-risk populations identified through
partnerships between the center and community-sponsored outreach
programs in local neighborhoods and in local social gathering places
of individuals with a high risk for HIV infection.



106030.  (a) The shared resource core shall provide administrative,
technical, educational, and health information dissemination services
to multiple projects conducted, in collaboration, by the Charles R.
Drew University of Medicine and Science and community-based
organizations.
   (b) The duties of the shared resource core shall include all of
the following:
   (1) Helping to provide program administration services, project
management, fiscal support, resource allocation, and program
evaluation.
   (2) Assisting in the collection, management, and analysis of
primary and secondary data, and providing methodological and
computational support and training.
   (3) Helping implement community-focused health promotion, disease
prevention, and health screening interventions and demonstration
projects.
   (4) Aiding in the synthesis, interpretation, and dissemination of
information on disparities in health indicators, medical outcomes,
death rates, and other aspects of health inequalities.
   (c) The objectives of the shared resource core shall include both
of the following:
   (1) To achieve economies of scale in effort, expertise, and
equipment, and thereby build the capacity of the community and the
Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science to develop,
implement, and evaluate community programs to reduce health
disparities.
   (2) To pool services, expertise, equipment, and facilities to
support several interrelated projects and collaborating
organizations, thereby impacting health disparities with greater
resources than those that would be provided separately to each
project and without formal interaction among the Charles R. Drew
University of Medicine and Science, community-based organizations,
and public sector agencies.



106035.  (a) The President of the Charles R. Drew University of
Medicine and Science shall appoint an external advisory committee,
composed of nine individuals who are nationally or regionally
recognized for their expertise in eliminating health disparities, to
oversee and evaluate all institute activities.
   (b) The president shall appoint an internal steering committee,
composed of leadership from the institute and members of
community-based organizations, public sector agencies, and projects,
to supervise the day-to-day activities of the institute.
   (c) The institute shall sponsor and conduct an annual Urban
Community Health Forum as a communitywide symposium. The forum shall
provide a report on the progress of the institute, offer technical
assistance workshops, and provide an overview of local, regional, and
national efforts concerning health disparities.



106036.  This part shall be implemented only to the extent that
private or federal funding is received for this purpose.