UCSF to Host Symposium Addressing Health Care Disparities Research

Faculty, staff and students are invited to an innovative, first-time symposium on health care disparities research on Tuesday, Oct. 23 at the Parnassus campus. Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Eugene Washington, MD, along with diversity celebration co-chairs Robert Baron, MD, and Michael Adams will present the first of its kind symposium as part of UCSF's annual diversity celebration. The symposium will take place in Cole Hall Auditorium from noon to 4:30 p.m. The speakers and subject areas represent a cross section of UCSF's professional schools as well as areas of clinical research. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services defines health care disparity as, "population-specific differences in the presence of disease, health outcomes, or access to health care." Contributing to the reduction of health disparities is a goal within the vision to serve our community, included in the UCSF Strategic plan, released in June. One strategy in that plan specifically recommends that UCSF lead efforts to eliminate health disparities by leveraging UCSF's research expertise, modeling best practices in clinical care and integrating content on health disparities throughout the continuum of learning. The program speakers and topics are as follows: Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, MD, PhD, assistant professor of medicine, epidemiology and biostatistics and co-director of the UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations, will share her research on heart disease among young and middle-aged adults. Esteban Gonzalez-Burchard, MD, MPH, assistant professor of biopharmaceutical sciences and of medicine, Graduate Program in Pharmaceutical Sciences and Pharmacogenetics and the divisions of pulmonary and critical care medicine and clinical pharmacology, will discuss the importance of race, ethnicity and genetics in biomedical research and clinical practice as well as share lessons learned from the Genetics of Asthma in Latino Americans (GALA) Study. Jyu-Lin Chen, RN, PhD, assistant professor of family health care nursing, will discuss research which focuses on familial factors on Chinese and Chinese American children's health related to childhood obesity and prevention. Octavia Plesh, DDS, professor of preventative and restorative dental sciences, will talk about chronic pain in young women. Elena Fuentes-Afflick, MD, MPH, professor of pediatrics, and of epidemiology and biostatistics, will present research on underweight and overweight body mass images in Mexican telenovelas and its impact on perinatel outcomes. Ricardo F. Muñoz, PhD, chief psychologist at San Francisco General Hospital, will share his findings on using the internet to reduce health disparities globally. Food and drinks will be provided. To save a space, RSVP to Karen Newhouse. Related Links: UCSF to Celebrate Diversity with Series of Events
UCSF Today, Oct. 2, 2007