$1.2 million grant to help address health care disparities
Mobile Register, November 18, 2004 Section: B Page: 3
Author: Monique Curet

The University of South Alabama's Center for Healthy Communities has received a $1.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to address health care disparities in minority and underserved populations in the area.

Programs to be funded include a church-based exercise project, home-monitoring of certain medical conditions for inner-city residents and a summer enrichment program for minority high school students to help them become competitive applicants for careers in biomedical sciences, according to Dr. Martha Arrieta, associate director of the Center for Healthy Communities.

The three-year grant is from the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities' Project EXPORT, whose awards "support the development of resources and infrastructure ... as a prelude to initiating full-scale health disparities research, community outreach and training aimed at eliminating health disparities."

What that means, according to Arrieta, is that institutions receiving the grants can test health interventions and programs, and the results become public knowledge and can be duplicated.

Dr. Robert Kreisberg, vice president for medical affairs and dean of the USA College of Medicine, said the grant is an excellent opportunity to enhance health care services for these targeted groups.

"We believe the research and health-care innovations supported through the grant should significantly improve our understanding of health disparities and our ability to develop practices to address them," Kreisberg said in a news release.

The Center for Healthy Communities came into existence in September 2003, when USA's board of trustees authorized its creation. Headed by Harvey White, the center is designed to address disparities in health care based on race, location and income.

The center does not provide care to patients but partners with existing caregivers to develop concepts for new programs to serve the target population.

The NIH grant has several components, two of which are research and community outreach. The church-based exercise and home-monitoring programs are pilot projects under the research arm, while the summer enrichment program and several other initiatives are part of the community outreach component, Arrieta said.

The church-based exercise project aims to involve about 300 people in physical activity programs at several inner-city churches in Mobile and Prichard, Arrieta said. Different regimens will be used at each church so that the effectiveness of each one can be measured.

The value of the program, Arrieta said, is that churchgoers - typically a tight-knit community - can support one another in their efforts to exercise.

The home-monitoring project will include about 15 people with diabetes, hypertension or congestive heart failure who will use small devices at home to measure blood pressure, glucose, blood oxygen and weight.

Readings from the devices will be automatically transmitted over phone lines to USA's Office of Emerging Health Technologies, where they will be monitored.

If a patient's condition changes, Arrieta said, the USA monitors will notify the primary care physician and take steps to get the person to the doctor.

While home-monitoring is regularly used in rural communities, the novel part of this program is that it will involve inner-city patients, Arrieta said.

Programs under the NIH grant that will target education include the Academic Pipeline for Minority Students, an eight-week residential summer program for high school juniors and seniors that will focus on math and science, among other academic areas, Arrieta said. The objective is to address deficiencies in those subjects so that the students will become competitive applicants for careers in biomedical sciences. Recruitment for that program will begin in the spring, and the first session will be in summer 2005.

The Center for Healthy Communities also has established a partnership with Talladega College, a historically black college, which will allow Talladega faculty to "avail themselves of the resources of (the University of South Alabama) so they can further their scientific careers," Arrieta said.

The ultimate goal is that Talladega faculty, after being mentored by USA faculty members, will be able to submit research grants on their own, Arrieta said.

This article reproduced with special permission from the Mobile Register.