National Minority Health Month brings five Brock scholars to EVMS
Five Brock scholars will address the topics of health equity and health disparities during April’s National Minority Health Month.
The second-annual month-long lecture series launched Wednesday, April 5, with David Acosta, MD, Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer for the Association of American Medical Colleges, who presented “Latino Health and Health Care Disparities” during Internal Medicine Grand Rounds.
Dr. Acosta, the son of migrant workers, told his EVMS audience that Latinos are the fastest-growing racial and ethnic population in the U.S. Raised by a grandmother who was a traditional healer, Dr. Acosta discovered early on that Latinos come from many different backgrounds. Along with their many different cultures and traditions, their dominant health issues vary widely with their ethnicities.
The challenge for physicians and the U.S. healthcare system, he said, is to adapt to meet these wide-ranging needs.
The series is hosted by the M. Foscue Brock Institute for Community and Global Health at EVMS and EVMS Diversity and Inclusion to help shed light on health inequalities for EVMS students, residents and healthcare professionals in the community.
National Minority Health Month helps raise awareness of issues that have an impact on health disparities and health equity in America. The 2017 theme is “Bridging Health Equity Across Communities.” The conditions in the places where people are born, grow, live, work, play, learn and age have significant impact on the health outcomes of individuals, families and their communities, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Minority Health.
The four speakers remaining in the EVMS series include:
- April 11: Jeanette South-Paul, MD, Chair, Family Medicine, University of Pittsburgh
- April 12: Kevin Gardner, MD, PhD, Senior Investigator, Genetics Branch, NIH
- April 19: Marcus Martin, MD (MD ’76), University Vice President and Chief Officer of Diversity, University of Virginia
- April 26: Said Ibrahim, MD, MPH, Co-Director, Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion, and Professor of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania
Pictured above from left: Mekbib Gemeda, Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion and Assistant Professor of Health Professions; Cynthia Romero, MD (MD ’93), Director, M. Foscue Brock Institute for Community and Global Health, EVMS-Sentara Endowed Chair for Academic Leadership and Associate Professor of Family and Community Medicine; Dr. Acosta; and Jerry Nadler, MD, the Harry H. Mansbach Endowed Chair in Internal Medicine, Professor and Chair of Internal Medicine and Vice Dean of Research.