Search

The 21st Century Cures Act provides funding for key initiatives relevant to the behavioral and social sciences and includes administrative provisions that facilitate health research and increase the privacy protections of research participants. At about the same time as the passage of the Act, the National Institutes of Health Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research released its Strategic Plan 2017-2021, which addresses three scientific priorities: (a) improve the synergy of basic and applied behavioral and social sciences research; (b) enhance and promote the research infrastructure, methods, and measures needed to support a more cumulative and integrated approach to behavioral and social sciences; and (c) facilitate the adoption of behavioral and social sciences research findings in health research and in practice. This commentary describes the implications of the Cures Act on these scientific priorities and on the behavioral and social sciences more broadly.

Abstract: To fully achieve the goals of a genomics‐enabled learning health care system, purposeful efforts to understand and reduce health disparities and improve equity of care are essential. This paper highlights 3 major challenges facing genomics‐enabled learning health care systems, as they pertain to ancestrally diverse populations: inequality in the utility of genomic medicine; lack of access to pharmacogenomics in clinical care; and inadequate incorporation of social and environmental data into the electronic health care record. We advance a framework that cannot only be used to directly improve care for all within the learning health system but can also be used to focus on the needs to address racial and ethnic health disparities and improve health equity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]