HRSA's role in improving community health: creative solutions that work.

The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) is currently focused on 2 high-profile presidential initiatives— one dealing with community health centers and the other with the National Health Service Corps—and is awaiting word from Congress to begin work on a third initiative that will focus on preventing asthma, diabetes, and obesity. The mission of HRSA is to improve the nation’s health by ensuring access to comprehensive, culturally competent, quality health care for some of the nation’s most vulnerable families and individuals. ‘‘Both President Bush and Health and Human Services Secretary Thompson are committed to this goal,’’ said the agency’s administrator Dr. Elizabeth Duke. ‘‘In fact, they are both convinced that the best way to boost access to care and eliminate health disparities is to get more direct health care to the people who need it most.’’