Eliminating health disparities through transdisciplinary research, cross-agency collaboration, and public participation.

Despite efforts to the contrary, disparities in health and health care persist in the United States. To solve this problem, federal agencies representing different disciplines and perspectives are collaborating on a variety of transdisciplinary research initiatives. The most recent of these initiatives was launched in 2006 when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Office of Public Health Research and the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Minority Health brought together federal partners representing a variety of disciplines to form the Federal Collaboration on Health Disparities Research (FCHDR). FCHDR collaborates with a wide variety of federal and nonfederal partners to support and disseminate research that aims to reduce or eliminate disparities in health and health care. Given the complexity involved in eliminating health disparities, there is a need for more transdisciplinary, collaborative research, and facilitating that research is FCHDR's mission.

Collaboration and importance of federally sponsored Superfund research programs.

Numerous studies have shown that the release of hazardous substances in the environment impact the environment and human health. Communities want to know if they have been exposed, if their health is affected, and how they can protect themselves. For environmental impacts the concerns include how best to clean up and manage the contamination, and protect the environment. The answers to these questions are complex and many times unknown. Three federal agencies conduct Superfund-related research to answer a wide range of questions from identifying contaminants of concern and health risks to determining effective cleanup and prevention strategies. This article discusses the research programs for the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (Office of Research and Development), and National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (Superfund Basic Research Program). The three agencies collaborate on their research programs and research agenda setting activities. This introduction to Superfund-related research provides a foundation and context for the scientific articles in this special edition of the journal. Because of the magnitude of environmental and human health concerns, there is a critical need for additional research to address many challenging questions involving exposures, biological responses, and environmental technologies.