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.

Gender divide over the healthcare reform bill

The historic healthcare reform bill has unearthed a strong difference between the Catholic nuns and Bishops. In short the great gender divide is at play again! While 59,000 nuns all over the country are in support of the bill, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops oppose it strongly.

22 Mar 2010

Novel ways of killing TB causing bacteria discovered

Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have found two novel ways of killing the bacteria that cause tuberculosis (TB), a disease responsible for an estimated two million deaths each year. The findings, published in the March 21 online issue of Nature Chemical Biology, could lead to a potent TB therapy that would also prevent resistant TB strains from developing.

22 Mar 2010

NMA supports health system reform

"The National Medical Association believes the passage of health care legislation this weekend will be one of the most important steps Congress can take in securing America's future," remarked Dr. Willarda V. Edwards, president of the National Medical Association. "The NMA is hopeful that Sunday's vote will bring relief to millions of Americans who wonder what will happen to them if they get sick," she continued.

20 Mar 2010

Community-driven approaches needed for reducing cancer-death disparities

Cancer death rates for African-Americans far exceed non-Hispanic Caucasians in the United States, and only community-driven approaches to reducing health disparities will lessen the gap, says Edward Partridge, M.D., president-elect of the American Cancer Society (ACS) National Board of Directors and director of the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Comprehensive Cancer Center.

19 Mar 2010

NMA to discuss the impact of health care reform on health disparities

The National Medical Association, the nation's oldest and largest organization representing the interests of 30,000 African American physicians will hold a press conference to address health care reform legislation and its impact on health disparities.

19 Mar 2010

Rates of breast cancer occurrences in Asian women rising among specific ethnic groups

Research scientists from the Cancer Prevention Institute of California (CPIC) released the results of a study of breast cancer in Asian women which examined their cancer rates by ethnicity, age and immigrant status. The findings challenge the notion that breast cancer rates are uniformly low across the population of Asian women and indicate rising rates of occurrences in specific ethnic groups. CPIC scientists studied Asian populations in California, the state with the largest and most diverse Asian population in the U.S.

19 Mar 2010

A right to health care? wrong!

Years of debating liberal friends and colleagues has brought me to an understanding: This question is at the core of the debate. The absurd notion of a “right” to health care underlies the movement towards socialized medicine. If this right does exist, it becomes a moral imperative to guarantee it for all, i.e. “universal coverage.”

18 Mar 2010

As the nation focuses on quality and cost of health care, AMA-convened PCPI celebrates milestone and looks to future

Celebrating its 10 year anniversary today at its meeting in the nation’s capital, the AMA-convened Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement (PCPI) highlighted its achievements to date and took a proactive look at future efforts to measure and improve the quality of patient care.

18 Mar 2010

Reforming healthcare

President Obama and his chief allies in Congress are at the final stages of structuring the historic year-long process of reforms in the health care legislation with changes in subsidies, taxes and assurance of better health care plans.

18 Mar 2010

Meta-study: Seven health risks impair academic performance of urban minority youth

"Educationally relevant health disparities" are key drivers of the achievement gap, "but they are largely overlooked," Charles Basch, the Richard March Hoe Professor of Health Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, said at a recent panel discussion at the College.

18 Mar 2010

China’s healthcare reform one year later

In April 2009, the Chinese government announced the guidelines for healthcare reform, with the core principle of providing universal healthcare services to the country's 1.3 billion population. China will invest 850 billion RMB ($124 billion) on healthcare from 2009 to 2011, further stimulating demand for medical devices, in what is already one of the world's fastest growing markets for medical technology. One year later, a number of new regulations and guidelines are in place, which are beginning to reshape the structure of the Chinese healthcare industry.

18 Mar 2010

Medtronic launches Every Patient First health equity initiative.

Medtronic, Inc. today introduced Every Patient First, a health equity initiative that, in partnership with health care providers, professional societies and patient advocacy groups, aims to reduce disparities in access to health care in the United States. The announcement was made at the 59th Annual Scientific Session of the American College of Cardiology in Atlanta.

17 Mar 2010

Levels of perceived cancer risk can affect health and longevity

Mammograms, pap smears and early detection tests for prostate cancer, colorectal cancer and other malignancies are critical for catching cancer before it becomes deadly.

16 Mar 2010

Amnesty International: Office of Maternal Health need to be established to reduce maternal deaths nationwide

Amnesty International called on President Obama today to quickly establish an Office of Maternal Health to lead government action to reduce soaring pregnancy-related complications and maternal deaths nationwide. The human rights organization said the government must take immediate steps to stop the loss of two to three women every day and reduce the risk of complications that now affect one-third of all pregnant women -- 1.7 million women a year.

12 Mar 2010

KID HEALTHY campaign celebrates eighth anniversary

Leaders of the annual KID HEALTHY - Steps to Healthy Living Campaign, announced today that on March 9 they will celebrate eight years of working in schools and youth agencies to combat the rising trend of childhood obesity in Southern California

4 Mar 2010

Childhood obesity prevention: Prenatal and infancy period upto age 5 crucial

Efforts to prevent childhood obesity should begin far earlier than currently thought-perhaps even before birth-especially for minority children, according to a new study that tracked 1,826 women from pregnancy through their children's first five years of life.

1 Mar 2010

Aetna Foundation announces two grants to eliminate health and health care disparities

The Aetna Foundation today announced two grants totaling $250,000 as part of its continuing efforts to establish racial and ethnic equity in health and health care. The elimination of health and health care disparities is one of three primary focus areas of the Aetna Foundation’s grant-making.

26 Feb 2010

Panel discussion addresses complex health problems

NIH's Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research convenes a panel discussion, "Science in Motion: Addressing Complex Health Problems Through Upstream Solutions."

22 Feb 2010

University of Missouri to offer health literacy courses for health professionals

The cost of low health literacy - the difference between patients' abilities to understand health information and providers' abilities to effectively communicate complex medical information - is $106 billion to $238 billion annually, according to Pfizer, a leading biopharmaceutical company. To improve the health literacy of professionals and patients, the University of Missouri will offer a health literacy study emphasis beginning this fall.

19 Feb 2010

HHS Secretary to address on health disparities at NABJ conference

Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius will deliver the keynote address at the National Association of Black Journalists annual conference on Health Disparities, March 4-6, 2010 at the Barbara Jordan Conference Center, Kaiser Family Foundation, 1330 G. Street, NW, Washington, D.C.

18 Feb 2010