Severe health disparities continue to exist between minority communities and the rest of the country. HIV/AIDS is the leading cause of death for African-American men aged 35-44. Minority communities suffer more from diabetes and cardiovascular disease. And more women of color die from breast and cervical cancer each year. The sixth biennial New England Regional Minority Health Conference convened this week to discuss these issues and more. WBRU Reporter Reiko Koyama has the story.

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Over 600 health professionals, research scholars, and legislators gathered at the Westin Hotel for a 3-day conference this week in Providence. This year’s conference was called “From Disparities to Equity: The Power to Make Change,” with the ambitious goal of eliminating racial and ethnic health
disparities by 2010. Dr. Garth Graham, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Minority Health at the U.S. Department of Health delivered Thursday’s keynote address. These discussions come on the heels of the congressional stimulus package, which may put the health care system in good position for
reform.

“With the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act contained a lot of money. And it contained a lot of money for public health and health programs. It also contained a lot of money for health care infrastructure and actually changing the health care infrastructure as it is now. One of the key components of health reform that is already on the way is the digitalization of health care.”

The revolution in health care will utilize new-age technologies to improve communication between the health world and underserved communities. Emailing physicians will become more commonplace and patients will get their questions answered faster. The text-messaging generation will even see texting as a way to receive important announcements about everything health-related from the swine flu to new vaccines. When it comes to new technology, Dr. Graham says that minority communities may actually be ahead of the game.

“So long and the short of it is, minority communities when they did have access to web-based technologies actually used it to seek information about health and other kinds of, similar kinds of
information more than majority communities.”

Ana Novais, Executive Director of Health at the Division of Community Family Health and Equity says that wide health disparities between majority and minority communities have little to do with genetic or hereditary factors, but more to do with structural conditions and lack of resources.

“So it means that you need to step back from the traditional approaches and look at what are the root causes of disparity. You look at where racial and ethnic minorites live and they live in the poorest neighborhoods. They go to the schools with the highest drop-out rates. And so those are some of the issues so you think about the social, the things that impact health are the social and
environmental determinants of health.”

Even the marketing of harmful products like tobacco have been targeted towards low-income communities and racial minorities for years. The disproportionate use of tobacco by racial minorities has caused a wide range of health problems in their communities today. Dr. Graham said an overhaul of tobacco regulation will focus on preventing this predatory marketing.

“The regulation of tobacco is something that’s gonna have very serious public health implications, especially for minority communities over the next 10-15-20 years and reverse what we believe has been disproportionate marketing.”

While the political climate for reform may be right, Dr. Novais is concerned with the lifestyle and habits of today’s generation. Without serious cultural changes, she warns, young people may face a grim future.

“This generation in fact has a lower life expectancy than my generation and that is a fact that has never happened for years. Every year you see the life expectancy generation by generation you have more years to live. Because of obesity rates, because of the lack of access to healthy foods, lack of activity and so forth just that alone this generation is going to have a lower life expectancy.”

Dr. Garth Graham stressed the need for increased awareness among low-income and minority communities, especially in times of rapid changes. Dr. Graham and Dr. Novais were both careful to emphasize that new technology and even expanded health insurance, however vital and critical they may be, cannot replace improving the quality of health care itself. Meaningful change will require both expanding resources and information to minority and underserved communities but also understanding how to best serve and care for these
patients from check-ups to the E.R.