Health Disparities News and Research

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Health disparities (also called healthcare inequality in some countries) refer to gaps in the quality of health and health care across racial, ethnic, sexual orientation and socioeconomic groups.

Study highlights importance of stress management, healthy lifestyle habits for people with migraine

Migraine sufferers who experienced reduced stress from one day to the next are at significantly increased risk of migraine onset on the subsequent day, according to a new study conducted by researchers at the Montefiore Headache Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University.

27 Mar 2014

NIH awards $28M grant to establish new center for excellence to find treatment for Ebola virus

The National Institutes of Health has awarded a five-year, $28 million grant to establish a new center for excellence to find an antibody "cocktail" to fight two types of viruses that cause severe hemorrhagic fever, including the deadly Ebola virus. The project involves researchers from 15 institutions, including Kartik Chandran, Ph.D., and Jonathan Lai, Ph.D., at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University. Einstein will receive approximately $4 million of the total grant.

21 Mar 2014

Playing science-based mobile gaming app for 25 minutes can reduce anxiety

Playing a science-based mobile gaming app for 25 minutes can reduce anxiety in stressed individuals, according to research published in Clinical Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

19 Mar 2014

State highlights: Wash. state cost and quality bills; Okla. privatized Medicaid; Fla. malpractice law overturned

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17 Mar 2014

Researchers to send 48 microbes to International Space Station

Microbes collected from Northern California and throughout the nation will soon blast into orbit for research and a microgravity growth competition on the International Space Station (ISS).

13 Mar 2014

PCORI to award $7 million contract to Chicago coalition to establish clinical data research network

On December 17, 2013, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) announced its intention to award an 18-month, $7 million contract to a Chicago area coalition of 20 health and hospital organizations including Loyola University Health System.

12 Mar 2014

Highlights: Calif. retiree health costs rise; more abortion clinic closings in Texas; Wash. insurance bills roadblock

A selection of health policy stories from California, Texas, Washington state, Illinois, Virginia and Georgia.

10 Mar 2014

Research roundup: Health care and prisoners; hospitalized patients' surrogates; suicides in the army

As a group, jail-involved individuals, which we define here as people with a history of arrest and jail admission in the recent past, carry a heavy illness burden, with high rates of infectious and chronic disease as well as mental illness and substance use.

10 Mar 2014

Aetna honored with 2014 Innovation in Reducing Health Care Disparities Award

Aetna was honored today by the National Business Group on Health (NBGH) with the 2014 Innovation in Reducing Health Care Disparities Award. Aetna is a three-time recipient of the award that recognizes organizations for their commitment to equality in health care and exceptional support for cultural diversity.

8 Mar 2014

E-cigarettes: New route to conventional smoking and nicotine addiction for teenagers

E-cigarettes, promoted as a way to quit regular cigarettes, may actually be a new route to conventional smoking and nicotine addiction for teenagers, according to a new UC San Francisco study.

7 Mar 2014

Mailing test results to patient’s home increase colon cancer screening rates by 40%

Colon cancer screening rates increased by nearly 40 percent when free stool tests were mailed to patients' homes, according to results of a pilot study published today in the journal BMC Cancer.

27 Feb 2014

Fred Hutchinson, SCCA researchers receive Seattle Business Magazine's 2014 Leaders in Health Care Awards

Researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and Seattle Cancer Care Alliance (SCCA) were recognized in several categories of Seattle Business Magazine's 2014 Leaders in Health Care Awards, including the publication's Lifetime Achievement Award, given to Frederick R. Appelbaum, M.D., executive vice president and deputy director of Fred Hutch and president of SCCA.

26 Feb 2014

Researchers examine what dosages of asthma medications works best in African Americans

The University of Illinois at Chicago has received funding from the National Institutes of Health to determine what combination and dosages of asthma medications works best to manage asthma in African Americans, who suffer much higher rates of serious asthma attacks, hospitalizations and asthma-related deaths than do white patients.

20 Feb 2014

Physicians’ attitudes about obesity may affect patients’ success in losing weight

Overweight and obese people who feel their physicians are judgmental of their size are more likely to try to shed pounds but are less likely to succeed, according to results of a study by Johns Hopkins researchers.

19 Feb 2014

Persons with severe symptoms of mental illness are at higher risk for being HIV-infected

People receiving mental health care are up to four times more likely to be infected with HIV than the general population, according to a new study published Feb. 13 in the American Journal of Public Health from researchers at Penn Medicine and other institutions who tested over 1,000 patients in care in Philadelphia and Baltimore.

14 Feb 2014

Albert Einstein College professor receives AAAS 2013 Newcomb Cleveland Prize

A study describing the complete wiring diagram for the part of the nervous system that controls mating behavior in male roundworms was chosen as the most outstanding paper published in Science in the year June 2012 to May 2013.

13 Feb 2014

Study: Gays and lesbians face several health disparities relative to heterosexual peers

Gay, lesbian and bisexual people face several health disparities relative to their heterosexual peers, finds a new study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

12 Feb 2014

Study examines how political values influence public response to messages about health disparities

Policymakers and advocates discussing health disparities in the United States would be wise to consider the political affiliation of their audience, suggests a new study published in the Journal of Health Communication: International Perspectives (2014).

11 Feb 2014

Penn Medicine launches program to improve health of LGBT individuals

Penn Medicine is the first academic medical center in Philadelphia - one among just a handful of academic medical centers in the U.S.—to launch a program across multiple professional schools and affiliated hospitals at Penn to improve the health of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals.

9 Feb 2014

Chemical "signature" in blood may predict which AML patients would benefit from chemotherapy

Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University and Montefiore Medical Center have found a chemical "signature" in blood-forming stem cells that predicts whether patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) will respond to chemotherapy.

4 Feb 2014