VCU to present 2nd annual Health Disparities Conference

By Malorie Burkett

Virginia Commonwealth University will once again bring together educators, health care professionals and researchers to discuss the nature of racial and ethnic health disparities and efforts to combat them during the 2^nd annual Health Disparities Conference: Progress Toward Eliminating Health Disparities.

The daylong conference will take place Friday, June 10, from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Omni Richmond Hotel, 100 S. 12^th St. It will feature faculty presenters from VCU, the University of Nebraska, Morehouse School of Medicine, Old Dominion University and health offices from the Commonwealth of Virginia and around the country.

Conference topics will include 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.

“Over 800,000 people lost their lives due to racial and ethnic health disparities in the past 10 years," said Wally Smith, M.D., conference chair and chair of VCU’s Division of Quality Health Care. "America is becoming increasingly diverse and will be majority-minority by 2050.

"It would be un-American to fail to pay attention to these two issues and seek solutions for mounting health disparities, even those caused by the health care system, per the Institute of Medicine's 2002 report, Unequal Treatment,” Smith said.

Smith also said that this conference seeks solutions for these mounting problems, using the IOM's model for causes of health disparities.

“Physicians and caregivers, researchers, educators, public health workers and the public are meeting to hear Virginia's beginning solutions,” said Smith.

The keynote speaker will be Steven Woolf, M.D., professor and director of research in VCU’s Department of Family Medicine, who will present “Our Struggle for Health Equity.” Woolf’s talk will focus on how deaths due to health disparities can be reduced and how they outnumber lives saved due to health technology.

Woolf also is a member of the National Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Medicine – a non-profit organization that provides evidence-based information and advice concerning health and science policy to policy-makers, professionals and leaders in every sector of society and the public at large.

The conference also will feature breakout sessions that will focus 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 profession. Other breakout sessions directed toward outreach and research will focus on cancer, cultural barriers and access to health care.

Among the panelists are Sen. Benjamin J. Lambert III, Virginia General Assembly; Louis W. Sullivan. M.D., president and chairman of the board for the Virginia-Nebraska Alliance and president emeritus of Morehouse School of Medicine; Barbara A. DeBuono, M.D., senior medical director/group leader of public health, Pfizer Global Pharmaceuticals; and Rubens J. Pamies, M.D., vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

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.

To register, or for more information, call the VCU Office of Continuing Professional Development and Evaluation Studies at 804.828.5414, or visit https://www.apps.som.vcu.edu/cme/documents/MCA000610105.pdf to view the program brochure, which may be printed and the completed registration may be faxed to 804.828.7438.