The 4th Cross-Cultural Healthcare Conference: Collaborative and Multidisciplinary Interventions, which was held on January 16–17, 2015, is a biennial symposium designed to provide an overview of critical issues facing healthcare professionals who care for diverse patient populations. This symposium, as well as those previously held, provided a forum to discuss the prevailing, cutting-edge, “evidence base” regarding cross-cultural healthcare training and treatment interventions. Utilizing a broad, multidisciplinary perspective, the focus was on how cultural factors can and have been incorporated into the training of healthcare professionals and how culture can potentially influence treatment decisions. The content of presentations and workshops demonstrated how specific interventions can be and have been implemented in educational, community, and private practice settings. Case-based discussions and instruction on use of tools, both validated and evolving, to assess cultural competency in individual treatment, training programs, and healthcare organizations were presented.
The objectives of the conference were to:
Identify the role of culture in the delivery of care in various healthcare settings (eg, clinic, hospital, community-based);
Demonstrate whether healthcare information (both verbal and written) is presented in a culturally and linguistically appropriate manner; and
Utilize existing cross-cultural healthcare resources to aid in the training of healthcare professionals, the delivery of care, and/or conduct of research.
One special feature of this year's conference, generously supported by an educational grant from The Doctor's Company Foundation, was the attendance of 113 students from medicine, nursing, psychology, and public health, as well as eight residents in training. We welcomed 244 participants from Hawai‘i and the continental U.S., in addition to colleagues from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. Making a welcome return to the plenary sessions were renowned Harvard scholar Joseph Betancourt, MD, MPH, who spoke on the role of culture in patient-centered care, and the Deans' panel, comprised of Dean Jerris Hedges (JABSOM), Dean Mary Boland (Nursing), Dean Noreen Mokuau (Social Work), Dean Maenette Benham (School of Hawaiian Knowledge), and Director Kathryn Braun (Public Health), who presented their collaborative efforts to eliminate health disparities and promote interdisciplinary learning and research. First-time speakers included Tawara Goode, from Georgetown University, who captivated the audience with the video vignettes incorporated in her presentation on training and mentoring minority students.
Afternoon breakout sessions allowed attendees the opportunity to learn more about regulatory updates regarding culturally and linguistically appropriate services, tools being developed to measure the efficacy of cultural competency, and the great community-based work of organizations such as Kokua Kalihi Valley.
Following are selected abstracts from the symposium by faculty who opted to share their work via this venue. The entire conference agenda can be viewed at www.cchc-conference.com. The 5th biennial conference will be held on February 17–18, 2017.
Acknowledgements
In addition to The Doctor's Company Foundation, we would like to thank AlohaCare, Castle Medical Center, The Queen's Medical Center, and Western Michigan University for their sponsorships. We also would like to thank HMSA for their donation.
We would like to offer special thanks to Dean Jerris R. Hedges MD, MS, MMM (UHM John A. Burns School of Medicine) for his generous contribution toward supporting the publication of this supplement. A huge Mahalo also goes out to Dean Maenette Benham EdD (UHM School of Hawaiian Knowledge), Dean Mary Boland DrPH, RN, FAAN (UHM School of Nursing and Dental Hygiene), and Dean Noreen Mokuau DSW (UHM School of Social Work) for their monetary contributions.
Conflict of Interest
The authors report no conflicts of interest.