NIH awards grant to local minority health center

More white women in Allegheny County develop breast cancer than black women, and yet, more… More white women in Allegheny County develop breast cancer than black women, and yet, more black women die of breast cancer. Black men in Allegheny County also have the highest rate of prostate cancer in the world, and yet, according to some, black men are underrepresented in actual treatment of prostate cancer.

Dr. Stephen Thomas, director of Pittsburgh’s Center for Minority Health, said these are only a few examples of the health care gap between whites and minorities.

Other examples he lists include infant mortality, cancer, HIV and AIDS, diabetes, and adult and child immunization. All, Thomas said, are areas of medical care in which members of minority groups do not receive the same quality of healthcare as white patients.

However, the center is working to close this gap with the help of the National Institute of Health. The NIH’s National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities has provided the center with a grant of $6 million, as part of a nationwide effort to remove racial disparities from medical care.

The grant money will be used to fund a project titled “EXPORT Health.” The project is rooted in the idea of promoting community outreach, research and training. Thomas described the project as a center of excellence in the medical community.

“The bottom line is that the NIH has now validated our community-based model of disease prevention,” Thomas said. “We want to export medical science to the people that live in the shadows of these grand buildings.”

The goal of the project is to form ties between leading medical professionals and the local black community. One of the project’s primary outreach programs places doctors in predominantly black barbershops. Thomas explained that in the black community, barbershops are where many people gather and exchange information.

With that in mind, on Sept. 24, 2002, the center arranged for physicians to volunteer to spend time in local black barbershops. Physicians provided information from opening to closing. The center now has plans to not only continue this program, but to expand it into black churches.

Additionally, the project will train what Thomas calls lay health advisers – people without a medical degree, but who have a large audience in the black community, who can provide good medical advice to people who would not otherwise have access to a doctor.

“We want people to be armed with accurate information,” Thomas said.

Working from the idea that the health disparities arise partially from the lack of minority health professionals, the center will also use the grant money to fund scholarships for minority students from traditionally black schools like Jackson State University, as well providing for exchanges of both students and faculty, allowing them to receive training at Pitt’s medical schools.