The CDH is fostering connections between researchers, clinicians, educators, and students across disciplines to build upon efforts to increase intercultural communication skills and develop cultural competencies for all members of the UW community. Over the past several years, initiatives to integrate education, training, research, and community outreach/partnership building across multiple disciplines have been initiated through CDH, as well as within the UW SMPH:

Center for Global Health
The Center for Global Health was established in 2005 and offers courses, field experiences, a certificate program, a seminar series and global partnerships with universities and health care organizations around the world. The CDH provides intercultural communication training support for the Center’s orientation course as part of the Center for Global Health study abroad field experience.

EXPORT Center
The CDH is home to an NIH-funded center of excellence for minority health and health disparities, referred to as EXPORT. EXPORT has initiated a broad spectrum of research, outreach, education and training projects, including the CDH seminar series on intercultural communication, a new course on interdisciplinary team building skills, community-academic partnership projects exploring health disparities, and an interdisciplinary dialog (co-sponsored with the School of Education) on assessing multicultural competence.

TEAM Program
The Training and Education to Advance Multidisciplinary Clinical Research (TEAM) program is built around a competency-based curriculum. Individualized career development plans ensure that TEAM Clinical Research Scholars achieve knowledge, skills, and experiences in six core areas required to be a clinical researcher, as well as training in areas necessary to work effectively as a member of a multidisciplinary clinical research team.

Innovations in Medical Education
The Innovations in Medical Education (IME) initiative is funded by the Wisconsin Partnership Fund for a Healthy Future. This initiative supports the development of new curricula in three priority content areas: public health, cultural competence and professional ethics. The IME project also involves the development of a web-based video library in which major educational presentations, such as Grand Rounds, seminars and guest lectures, will be digitally recorded and posted along with links of interest to the topics discussed. These presentations will be available to students, faculty, community preceptors, public health organizations, and health consumers around the state.

BASIC Grant
The Behavioral and Social Science Interdisciplinary Curriculum development (BASIC) grant supports the integration of research from the behavioral and social sciences into the school of medicine and public health education and training programs. The goal of this project is to support research, training, and education that will contribute to the development and support of cultural competence and lessen healthcare disparities and outcomes.