WASHINGTON–US Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt will form a trans-agency workgroup to coordinate his department's various services and programs. The goal: To increase the visibility and access of the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities to federal services and programs.

Leavitt made the announcement at a meeting with 13 national Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander health and community organization representatives. The workgroup’s first collaboration will be on the Hepatitis B initiative. AAPIs have the highest rate of Hepatitis B infection, which can lead to liver cancer.

The trans-agency workgroup will be coordinated by the Office of Minority Health, with participating agencies from the Center for Disease Control (CDC), National Institute of Health. It will meet with the Asian American and Pacific Islander community twice each year to evaluate progress and address on-going concerns.

Dr. Ho L. Tran, CEO of the Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum which led the community delegation, welcomed Leavitt’s announcement.

"We are encouraged with the Secretary's responsiveness and commitment to work with the AAPI communities.” Dr. Tran said. “The general lack of affordable health care, coupled with limited culturally competent and linguistically appropriate services have negatively impacted the community members' access to general medical, and specifically, mental health services. Combined with the lack of aggregated and ethnic-focused data collection from the federal government, these have rendered our communities invisible to health care providers and policy-makers."

Added Jeffrey Caballero, Executive Director of the Association of Asian Pacific Community Health Organizations: "Community-based health centers have proven to be highly effective and often the sole source of preventive and primary health care to the most vulnerable members of our communities.

“We reminded the Secretary of the urgent need for more community health centers as the AAPI population has expanded beyond the traditional AAPI neighborhoods where community health centers are currently placed," he said.

Other community leaders who attended the meeting included Clayton Fong, National Asian Pacific American Council on Aging; Floyd Mori, Japanese American Citizens League; Randall Low, National Council of Asian Pacific American Physicians; DJ Ida, National Asian American & Pacific Islander Mental Health Association and Doua Thor, Southeast Asian Resource Action Center.

In response to the attendees' recommendations, it was also agreed to hold a Town Hall gathering of Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders to examine government and community initiatives on critical issues facing them. The National Institute of Health and Center for Disease Control will lead federal efforts with AAPI health leaders to develop a comprehensive Hepatitis B awareness program that includes screening, immunization, treatment and research.

Dr. Tran noted the trans-agency work group would strengthen the links between federal health authorities and the AAPI communities. “We look forward to the continued leadership from Secretary Leavitt toward our shared commitment of raising the visibility, thus access to health care, of all AAPIs,” he said.