The Health Disparities Podcast

Meet Sonja from St. Louis. Sonja was intrigued when her husband brought home a flyer describing a health education program soon to start nearby.

Meet Laura from San Diego. Like many women of retirement age, she has experienced the joys of building a family and the challenges of staying healthy.

Dr. Elena Rios has dedicated her career to improving the health of Latinx communities. In 1994, she co-founded the National Hispanic Medical Association based in Washington DC which represents approximately 50,000 Hispanic physicians across the United States.

When Congressman Anthony Brown was Lt. Governor of Maryland, he implemented a new model for reducing health disparities: the creation of Health Enterprise Zones.

Living in rural Kentucky has its challenges, and Deanna at 74 was feeling unhappy that she had constant back pain and her health seemed in decline.

We revisit our Operation Change series with a trip to Hazard, Kentucky. Wanda initially thought an 18-week health education program was a huge time commitment, and that maybe it was too late to make changes.

Five young health professionals and an experienced mentor make the future look brighter as they share insights and experiences of overcoming bias and racism.

Despite progress, heart disease remains the #1 cause of death in America. Not only does heart disease have a disproportionate impact on different populations, it also has a direct bearing on the severity of COVID-19 infection.

It’s a well-known fact that women do better with female doctors, and minorities do better with doctors that look like them, but both demographics are underrepresented in surgical medicine.

Dr. Augustus White is a pioneering African American physician and Harvard Professor and a leading researcher and writer about unconscious and implicit bias in medicine.

There are 574 federally recognized Native American tribes in the United States, all of which were promised healthcare and other services as part of resettlement programs. But having limited democratic power and leverage, health services for Natives have been neglected over many decades.

With Florida emerging as the new epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, care providers in Jacksonville knew they had to intervene decisively with a testing plan for all populations, including the most vulnerable.

Operation Change Chicago was the prototype of this community intervention program, and has run numerous series that have enabled the model to evolve.

Every iteration of Operation Change has a unique aspect. There may be certain chronic health conditions that are common to urban, suburban and rural communities, but the needs of different communities vary greatly.

Historic St. Louis was the location for an Operation Change program led by Darlene Donegan, an educator and yoga teacher who is very active in her community.

Based in the Salvation Army Kroc Center in eastern San Diego, Miriam Rodriguez and her team used their local connections to build the first Operation Change program to be delivered in the Spanish language.

In this podcast program leader Hazella Rollins LaVar shares some insights into the content and impact of the Operation Change initiative at Grace Baptist Church, New York. Grace Baptist is in Mount Vernon, Westchester County, on the fringes of New York City.

Chicago community leader Christin Zollicoffer discusses how Operation Change has evolved and explores some of the profound and life-changing experiences she has witnessed working with her local participants.

Dr. Yashika Watkins details some of the underpinnings of the Operation Change program and shares insights into how the program can be replicated. This is the first in a series of podcasts exploring the Operation Change program, which will include testimonials from program leaders and participant case reports.

Every month millions of patients visit Orthoinfo.org, a patient oriented orthopedics website from AAOS. Dr. Stuart Fischer leads the editorial team, which produces the content and translates articles into multiple languages.

A multitude of key health disparity indices show that we have not seen significant progress in narrowing the gap between minority and majority populations since the landmark report “Unequal Treatment” in 2003.

Dr Rahn Bailey discusses how for decades discrimination has played a central role in health disparities, and how gun violence compounds the problem through traumatic experiences, chronic stress and behavioral consequences.

Reverend Willis Steele hosts a discussion about the impact of COVID-19 in Southern states with Dr. Pernessa Seele, the CEO and founder of The Balm in Gilead, a faith-based organization that provides support to people and their families with chronic diseases such as diabetes, as well as working for the prevention of HIV and AIDS.

Speaking at the university where she was the only female and only African American student in her class, and in the auditorium named for her, Healing Hate conference keynote speaker Dr Vivian Pinn reflects on progressing her career during eras of segregation, discrimination, and civil rights.

Bill Finerfrock, Executive Director at the National Association of Rural Health Clinics, hosts an in-depth discussion about rural health disparities with a panel of experts from across the US.