A pilot study was initiated using distress management clinical practice guidelines of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network in the U.S. and such tools as Distress Thermometers, the Brief Symptom Inventory and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. Using these instruments provided objective and faster diagnostics than ones that were being employed. This project has been shared with members and staffers of the EU Parliament.

Studies have shown that African-Americans bear a disproportionate burden of illness, and experts have long called for more effective health promotion and better access to health care in this community as a top public health priority. Among African-American women, this need is particularly acute in certain disease areas. Mortality rates for breast cancer, for example, are higher in black women despite the fact that the disease is more prevalent among white women. And diabetes remains a serious and growing problem in minority populations. In an effort to help develop new and innovative strategies to reach out to - and improve health outcomes among - African-American women, the Foundation supported a multiyear educational initiative in the late 1990s at the University of California at San Diego. This program recruited and trains beauticians to educate their clients on the importance of breast cancer screening as well as prevention, recognition and treatment of diabetes. With support from a three-year, $300,000 grant from the Foundation, stylists in more than 20 salons were trained as lay community health educators. They worked with more than 1,000 women in the San Diego area who agreed to participate in this study and who welcomed this additional source of health information made available in a comfortable, familiar environment that they visited repeatedly. The concept has been widely reported on and adopted in communities beyond San Diego.