Abstract. New models of care delivery have been developed to better coordinate and integrate health-care for women. In the United States, one of the challenges is to incorporate the needs of racial and ethnic minority populations into these newer care paradigms. This paper begins with a brief historical review of the experience of racial and ethnic minorities in the American healthcare system to provide a context for discussing barriers and limitations of more traditional models of women's healthcare. Specific approaches used by National Centers of Excellence in Women's Health are presented as examples of strategies that may be implemented by other communities to address these barriers.

Reprinted with permission from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. (Journal of Women's Health and Gender-Based Medicine, 2001 Vol 10 No 6, pp 551-559.) Single copies of this article may be downloaded for personal research and study.

Current as of May 2004