| Abstract |
In Native American tradition, the medicine wheel encompasses four different components of health: physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual (see Figure 1-1). Health and well-being require balance within and among all four components. Thus, whether someone remains healthy depends as much on what happens around that person as on what happens within. On November 14, 2012, the Roundtable on the Promotion of Health Equity and the Elimination of Health Disparities of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) held a workshop in Seattle, Washington, to explore the ideas at the heart of the medicine wheel. Titled Leveraging Culture to Address Health Inequalities: Examples from Native Communities, the workshop brought together more than 100 health care providers, policy makers, program administrators, researchers, and Native advocates to discuss the sizable health inequities affecting Native American, Alaska Native, First Nation, and Pacific Islander populations and the potential role of culture in helping to reduce those inequities. The Roundtable on the Promotion of Health Equity and the Elimination of Health Disparities was created to enable dialogue and discussion of issues related to (1) the visibility of racial and ethnic disparities in health and health care as a national problem; (2) the development of programs and strategies to reduce disparities; and (3) the emergence of new leadership. All three objectives were achieved at the Seattle meeting. |
