The Health Disparities Podcast

More than 181 million Americans receive health coverage through employers, the largest source of health coverage for the nonelderly, covering 58% of the U.S. population.

Dr. Omolola (Lola) Eniola-Adefeso and Dr. Kelly Stevens are part of a nationwide network of BME women faculty who are collectively arguing that the racial funding disparity by NIH is the most "insidious barrier to success of Black faculty in our profession".

Recently featured in the Forbes 30 under 30 list, M.D. candidate Max Jordan Nguemeni Tiako, M.S. channels a passion for health equity and racial equity to produce and host “Flip the Script”, a highly rated podcast on SoundCloud, iTunes and Spotify.

Dr. Nereida Correa, who began her career as a registered nurse, became the first Hispanic woman to be named chair of the department of obstetrics and gynecology at Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center, a large, hospital-based group practice in the Bronx.

With new payment models further complicating a difficult situation, are some Kentucky residents struggling to get the care they need and the respect they deserve from rural healthcare systems that are under increasing strain?

With more and more physicians choosing specialty care over primary care, Nurse Practitioners have an increasingly important role as providers on the front line, serving more vulnerable populations who experience limitations in accessing healthcare, particularly in rural areas.

Rural communities experience significant health disparities along with the above-average prevalence of chronic conditions, and a lower-than-average ratio of providers to patients.

Podcast host and NYC Physician Assistant Klarisse Mathis welcomes two colleagues and mentors. Infectious disease specialist Sondra Middleton, MHS, PA-C, is Assistant Professor at the Touro School of Health Sciences, and Associate Director of Physician Assistant Manhattan.

Dr. Dwight Burney welcomes back orthopedic surgeon and outcomes expert Dr. MaCalus Hogan, M.D., M.B.A. to the podcast. Dr. Hogan is the Vice Chair of Education, and Residency Program Director, in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, a health system serving 3 million patients.

Dr. Jannifer Harper welcomes rural health and legislative affairs expert Bill Finerfrock, and Root Cause Coalition Director Tom Dorney, who previously served as Senior Policy Advisor to Congressman John Lewis.

Dr. Mary O’Connor hosts a discussion about the potentially detrimental impact of value-based care models on vulnerable populations, and how the safety-net hospitals that serve these patients are further strained, particularly in rural and inner-city areas.

Risk is an intrinsic part of medical decision making. Every drug and every procedure must justify their benefit relative to any risks involved, so healthcare providers are very conscious of these risks and outcomes.

Dr. Sherry Segura continues our exploration of Hispanic education and workforce diversity. Dr. Segura is CEO of the Foundation for Hispanic Education in San Jose, California, where she is deeply involved in community efforts to ensure high quality and innovative educational services are available to all students.

Ed Alvarez is President at the Latino Education Advancement Foundation in the San Francisco bay area, collaborating with other experienced nonprofits in developing initiatives focusing on college and career pathways, college persistence and completion.

Dr. Leigh Callahan is Professor of Medicine & OAAA. As an epidemiologist, Dr. Callahan seeks to understand how outcomes of osteoarthritis are influenced by factors such as race, ethnicity, gender, age, location, and social determinants of health (such as socioeconomic status).

When healthcare quality management expert Donna Kurek made the switch to a more rural hospital system, she realized that there exists a whole different set of social determinants to consider in Appalachia, especially in the context of bundled payments.

Physician Assistants are a relatively new specialty created in response to the shortage of primary care physicians in rural areas, and the PA profession is now well established with over 100,000 graduates of accredited PA programs.

Orthopedist Dr. Eric Santos sees a diverse range of patients in his two Texas practices in Corpus Christi and McAllen, which have very different patient populations. He works hard to provide culturally competent healthcare services to his Hispanic patients, which includes providing consultations in both Spanish and English.

Rural Wyoming is a beautiful place to live, but those wide-open spaces on the frontier create a number of health disparities, with the presence of Native American reservations, COVID-19, and hospital closures adding more complexity.

Operation Change is a community intervention designed to address chronic health conditions and to mitigate some of the related social determinants of health, for women in mid-life and later-life. A fundamental part of the program is to help participants find their own sources of motivation for creating a healthier lifestyle.

Operation Change provided Lynn with invaluable knowledge and a new support network. In her 70s and busy in retirement with volunteer work, Lynn became more conscious of her diet, her physical activity levels, and she became a FitBit enthusiast.

Mt. Vernon, N.Y. resident Olivia found new motivation to take care of her own health by learning about health disparities in her community.

Bringing clinical research to Latinx communities has become a joint mission for today’s podcast guests, Dr Fabian Sandoval and Dr Gustavo Corrales.

The relatively low uptake of flu vaccinations in Black and Hispanic communities is a longstanding health disparity and a public health concern. What if this pattern is repeated for the coronavirus, which is already having a disparate impact?

Meet Freda from St. Louis. Over many sedentary years Freda experienced chronic conditions such as back pain, diabetes and high blood pressure and she found it difficult to follow her doctor’s directions to exercise and lose weight. “I desperately needed to garner better health habits, or I would have deterioration in my conditions and need […]