Educators, health care professionals and researchers came together June 10 for the second annual Health Disparities Conference: Progress Toward Eliminating Health Disparities. The conference was held at the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in Richmond, to discuss the nature of racial and ethnic health disparities, and the efforts to combat them.
The daylong conference, which attracted almost 250 people from across the country featured faculty from the University of Nebraska Medical Center, VCU, Morehouse School of Medicine, Old Dominion University, and health officials from the Commonwealth of Virginia.
UNMC faculty played an integral role in the conference and will be involved in future such conferences with VCU, said Rubens Pamies, M.D., UNMC vice chancellor for academic affairs. In addition to being part of the conference planning committee, Dr. Pamies was the luncheon speaker. He talked about principles of cultural medicine and the role of research on health disparities.
John McClain, Ph.D., associate vice chancellor of academic affairs and Mary McNamee, Ph.D., assistant vice chancellor for academic affairs, also were involved in the conference. Dr. McClain participated in a plenary session on how diversifying the workforce makes a difference, and also served on the planning committee. “I thought the conference was extremely useful because it provided a strong connection between the global problem and specific solutions such as the establishment of the Virginia-Nebraska Alliance as a means of addressing workforce issues,” Dr. McClain said.
Louis Sullivan, M.D., served as moderator of the plenary session. Dr. Sullivan is chairman of the President’s Advisory Committee on Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).
“We decided the conference also could serve as a culmination of what the Virginia-Nebraska Alliance has done throughout the year,” Dr. Pamies said. “It highlights the Virginia-Nebraska Alliance and raises awareness around the country about what we’re doing regarding health disparities and diversifying our health care workforce.”
“As little as five years ago, maybe we would have a little section at conferences on health disparities. Now there are several conferences dedicated to this issue around the country,” said Dr. Pamies, who’s also involved in a conference later this year with former U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher, M.D.
Dr. Pamies said the conference was unique in that it added the political spotlight component and highlighted the Virginia-Nebraska Alliance, which deals with promoting access and training for minority students.
Last September, five Historically Black Colleges and Universities and a leading Virginia community college partnered with UNMC and Virginia Commonwealth University to create the Virginia-Nebraska Alliance, with the ultimate goal of increasing the number of minority health professionals and researchers nationwide in hopes of promoting better health outcomes for underrepresented minorities.
Dr. Sullivan, to his credit, has been very good about highlighting the Virginia-Nebraska Alliance, Dr. Pamies said. Louis W. Sullivan. M.D., is president and chairman of the board for the Virginia-Nebraska Alliance and president emeritus of Morehouse School of Medicine.
“The Virginia-Nebraska Alliance has been a good thing for us. It has generated awareness through national media. It’s also brought the HBCUs into focus and has them working on collaborating more to offer students opportunities. All-in-all, the HBCUs will benefit greatly from this,” Dr. Pamies said. “We need to ensure the students are well prepared academically prior to entering a professional school.”
Dr. Pamies said conference attendees shared positive comments about the Virginia-Nebraska Alliance. He said the HBCUs are looking into partnering with others to form such alliances. “As the notoriety of the group grows, I suspect the conference will attract more people,” he said. “The whole field is new from the stance of a fulltime organized basis. It’s the only way we can solve some of these issues.”
He said not only do health disparities exist among various cultures, they also exist among other groups, including the elderly, those with disabilities and those in rural communities.
“That’s why we need conferences like these. We’re becoming a more diverse country. When the chancellor made the recent trip across Nebraska, some towns in the rural communities reported as much as 25 percent of their communities are primarily Spanish-speaking,” Dr. Pamies said. “They need our assistance in helping them solve some of the issues that arise as a result of these demographic changes. Nebraska is not immune to what’s happening around the country. We have our own unique issues.”
Topics for the conference in Richmond included factors leading to health disparities and how they derive from the patient; the health care system and society; various systems and community approaches to overcoming financial and access barriers to health care; and the role of research on health disparities.
Dr. Pamies said discussions are underway for UNMC to co-host the next health disparities conference with VCU. Topic areas will include policy, health, research and education issues, he said, as well as a keynote speaker who will set the stage for future directions related to health disparities. Plans also include poster presentations and workshops from students involved in Virginia-Nebraska Alliance summer programs.
Keynote speaker of the June 10 conference was Steven Woolf, M.D., professor and director of research in VCU’s Department of Family Medicine, who presented “Our Struggle for Health Equity.” He spoke about how deaths due to health disparities can be reduced and how they outnumber lives saved due to health technology.
Conference breakout sessions also focused on disease-focused solutions, such as a walking program and dietary interventions for obesity; complementary and alternative medicine; and area health education centers’ impact on minority representation in the health care professions. Other breakout sessions directed toward outreach and research will focus on cancer, cultural barriers and access to health care.
Among the panelists at the conference were Dr. Pamies, Dr. Sullivan; Sen. Benjamin J. Lambert III, Virginia General Assembly; Barbara A. DeBuono, M.D., senior medical director/group leader of public health, and Pfizer Global Pharmaceuticals.
Notable VCU faculty include Sheldon Retchin, M.D., VCU Health System CEO and VCU vice president for health sciences; Sheryl Garland, vice president, Department of Community Outreach; Kevin Allison, director of applied outreach; Denise Daly, executive director of Richmond Enhancing Access to Community Healthcare and instructor in the Division of Quality Health Care; Cyndy Simonson, associate professor, Massey Cancer Center Outreach; and Diane Wilson, Ed.D., associate professor of internal medicine.