Research has extensively documented the pervasiveness of racial and ethnic disparities in health care. In 1999, as part of a national effort to eliminate health care disparities, Congress required the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to produce an annual report to be called the National Healthcare Disparitites Report (NHDR).

In this report, titled Guidance for the National Healthcare Disparities Report, an IOM committee was asked to provide guidance to AHRQ to help fulfill the potential of the NHDR. The report addresses such issues as measuring disparities in access to and the quality of health care, measuring socioeconomic status, developing adequate data sources, and determining AHRQ's need for adequate financial and other resources to produce the NHDR.