Free Public Health CME

Activity Description / Statement of Need:
In this online, self-learning activity:

Health disparities are defined as “preventable differences in the burden of disease, injury, violence, or opportunities to achieve optimal health that are experienced by populations that have been disadvantaged by their social or economic status, geographic location, and environment.” According to the landmark 2002 report by the Institute of Medicine, Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care, even when access-related factors are accounted for, racial and ethnic minorities receive a lower quality of health care than White patients. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality also releases an annual National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Report showing White patients receive a better quality of care and experience better health outcomes compared to non-Whites.

Target Audience:
HCPs including: physicians, physician assistants, nurses, pharmacists, and any other clinician involved in providing patient care.

Unintended pregnancies are a public health emergency and are associated with maternal morbidity and mortality due to complications of unsafe abortion, miscarriage, preeclampsia, obstetric bleeding, and socioeconomic inequality. Over 48% of all pregnancies in the US are unintended – either unwanted or occurring earlier or later than desired – and they are most prevalent in women and girls of lower socioeconomic status and those who cohabit. Unintended pregnancies also impose significant psychosocial and economic costs. Including expenses related to births, abortions, and miscarriages, they cost the US approximately $21 billion every year.