Policymakers should work harder to improve health care given to minorities, a prominent politician told students and faculty members at a day-long conference Saturday.

Rear Admiral Nathan Stinson Jr., the national director of the federal Office of Minority Health, said lawmakers need first to acknowledge a health care gap before they can hope to correct it.

We have to get to the point where were addressing these disparities, not debating about whether or not they exist, Stinson said.

The conference on disparities in minority health care was sponsored by the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations, and it featured Harvard doctors and administrators who deal with minority health care issues.

Stinson, who served as the keynote speaker, said that some current health care policies fail to address pressing issues or inadvertently cause larger problems to develop.

Health care policy in this country is formed in a very haphazard way, he said.

According to Stinson, scientists need to compile statistical information about where medical treatment is most needed, rather than using all their energy to develop new treatments.

Were very good about building the next mouse trap, he said. But were not catching any mice.

He said drug companies, for instance, put too much effort into developing medicine instead of finding out who actually needs better health care.

As an example of the research he advocates, Stinson cited the statistic that in Miami, Fla., 75 percent of new cases of HIV or AIDS occur in black communities.

I cannot understand how it is that a nation that prides itself on its ability to solve any problem...is just able to look at the statistics and shrug its shoulders, Stinson said.

He also urged health care providers to better understand the cultures of their patients.

Cultural competency goes beyond being something PC, he said. The better you can communicate with an individual, the better you can provide care to the individual.

He said this cultural competency is growing even more important as America becomes more diverse.

Stinson noted that improving the health care of one group does not mean that another groups health care must decline as a result.

Its not a zero-sum game, he said. We dont always have winners and losers... There are equilibrium points that help everyone.