we are getting good feedback from peter bach and the research they're doing. take a look at the institute of medicine, those of you who are familiar with the institute of medicine, what it is and what it does, it pulls together a group of national experts on any printed the topic area to investigate and publish an unbiased, non partisan view on any particular topic. something the institute of medicine and highlighted was the importance of cultural healthcare, i am not a teacher so i can't speak for education but i have respect for teachers and the importance of workforce diversity. one of the other pieces of data we can certainly understand from that very important report is the importance of concordance between groups in terms of understanding particular patients. here is where we get to the heart of cultural competency. understanding the patient and being able to understand the cause. that could be a poor white patient, a rich white patient, a static patient, russian patient, understand the cultural background of the patient and being able to interpret that

peter bach who is a physician at the memorial sloan kiterring cancer center. his work has focused particularly on improving the quality of care for african-american patients in medicare including cancer care. he previously served as senior adviser to the administrator of the centers for medicare and medicaid services where among other things he oversaw the agency's cancer initiatives. folks, i am excited to have you here. this is an issue that is, that we've needed to have a fully flushed-out discussion on these issues for quite some time, and i'm glad you could make it here today. the next thing we have to take care of, we have to swear you in. so, please, raise your right hand. please swear or affirm that the information you have provided is true and accurate to the best of your knowledge and belief. >> i do. >> i do. >> very good. let's get started. here are the mechanics. each speaker will have 10 minutes, and, please, try to stay within the time frame. at the end of the, at the end of the presentations we will have a q&a session, and we will start with dr

my name is peter bach, and i am a physician at the memorial sloan-kettering cancer center. this is a hybrid of techniques from economics, epidemiology, and statistics in order to gain an idea about the health care system. for more than one ticket, but my main interest has been health disparities. i am grateful for the invitation to speak to you today about my research and others. i am humbled by this opportunity, and for more than one decade, the national institute of aging, and many others, and specifically credit my colleagues at sloan- kettering and those at the center for health change. we have for together on these problems. the names of their peer are less relevant. about one decade ago, my colleagues and i wondered if the higher mortality rates with cancer could be due to blacks receiving less affected treatment, specifically in the setting of cancer. we chose a simple procedure. this was for early stage lung cancer. the streets the no. 1 cancer killer, lung cancer, 25% of all cancer deaths, and it is enormously effective. in an analysis printed one decade ago, prior