April 7 marks World Health Day across the globe.

Originally, this day marked the creation of the World Health Organization (WHO). With WHO''s global recognition, the focus of celebration for this day has changed to mark awareness of serious health issues that are faced by citizens around the world. This year the theme for World Health Day is international health security. The goal is to urge government, organizations, and communities to "Invest in health, build a safer future."

The Barnes-Jewish Hospital Center for Diversity and Cultural Competence (CDCC) celebrates World Health Day. Everyday efforts such as quality and patient safety, capacity management, and other daily operational activities are investments that Barnes-Jewish Hospital makes to ensure the highest level of services are provided to the health care community. In addition, Barnes-Jewish Hospital has invested in the development of the CDCC to affect the elimination of health disparities through programs to improve cultural competence. As we celebrate World Health Day, it is imperative that we take a moment to think about how we can affect the lives of the global community that we serve.

So how can we help invest in health and build a safer future? We can engage in activities to support our hospital''s efforts to become culturally competent, manage our own health, understand our responsibility toward disaster preparedness, patient education, and other initiatives to ensure a safe health-care environment, and visit websites of the CDCC, UNICEF (http://www.unicef.org), WHO (http://www.who.int), and other global health organizations. These are simple strategies to help us join together to build a safer future.

From BJC Today, April 9, 2007, by Brenda Battle, Director of the Center for Diversity and Cultural Competence and Pradipta Upadrashta, Business Manager of Emergency Services at Barnes-Jewish Hospital