A Black Doctor and Scientist on Vaccinating Minorities

Posted on April 14, 2021September 28, 2021 by NIMHD

Photo of Dr. Roderic I. Pettigrew getting a COVID-19 vaccine

pettigre- vaccine 2

NOTE: For National Minority Health Month, NIMHD Insights Blog is sharing this timely op-ed that was printed with permission from the Houston Chronicle from former and founding Director of NIH’s National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, Dr. Roderic I. Pettigrew.

By Roderic I. Pettigrew, Ph.D., M.D.
CEO of Engineering Health
Executive Dean of Engineering Medicine
Texas A&M University and Houston Methodist Hospital
Former and Founding Director, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering

Dr. Roderic I. Pettigrew getting his COVID-19 vaccine

When it was first announced that a COVID-19 vaccine was authorized for emergency use by the Federal Drug Administration in the United States, the scientific community was finally able to exhale. As a Black physician and member of the scientific community, I was particularly encouraged because of the disproportionately higher rates of hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19 among the Hispanic, Black, and Indigenous American populations.

My relief, however, was short-lived. We continue to see troubling inequities with new reports showing that many people from the minority community are among the lowest currently receiving the new vaccines, and the highest to be hesitant about its safety and effectiveness. According to Pew Research Center¹, just 42 percent of Black adults are inclined to get vaccinated, compared to 63 percent of white adults and 83 percent of adult Asian Americans.

Continue reading “A Black Doctor and Scientist on Vaccinating Minorities” →

In Search of Equity: Rethinking Race and Racism in Science and Medicine

Posted on February 11, 2021June 8, 2021 by NIMHD

Boulwared - Lab Coat

Black History Month

In Search of Equity: Rethinking Race and Racism in Science and Medicine

By L. Ebony Boulware, M.D., M.P.H.
Chief, Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine
Director, Duke Clinical and Translational Science Institute
Duke University School of Medicine

Dr. L. Ebony Boulware

Recent events compel us to reckon, yet again, with the ongoing legacy of systemic racism in the U.S. The merciless murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and countless other Black individuals through police violence reflect an epidemic of brutality that manifests ongoing and profound racially mediated structural social inequities in the U.S. Compounding this, the recent higher COVID-19 death rates among Black and Hispanic communities have made it clear that race-based structural inequities are directly tied to poor health and further threaten the lives of Black and other minoritized individuals.¹ These intersecting realities have brought many in the fields of science and medicine to consider how race and racism are harmfully operationalized through many aspects of our collective experiences. Continue reading “In Search of Equity: Rethinking Race and Racism in Science and Medicine” →

NIMHD 10: A Year in Review and a Path Forward

Posted on January 28, 2021January 28, 2021 by NIMHD

Photo of Dr. Eliseo J. Perez-Stable, NIMHD Director

EPS - Desk sitting

By Eliseo J. Pérez-Stable, M.D.
Director, National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities

In 2020, we celebrated NIMHD’s 10th anniversary as an institute at the National Institutes of Health. As the year began, we could not have foreseen the disruptions and devastation that a global pandemic would cause. Although many would say we could have predicted the exacerbation of health disparities among racial and ethnic minorities and all working people with the onset of COVID-19, its impact has revealed so much about the inequities within the fabric of our nation. While the nation (and the world) grappled with how best to deal with our new public health crisis, NIMHD pressed ahead to be a part of the solutions. We expanded the breadth and depth of our work with new collaborations, research programs and resources in support of our mission to improve minority health and reduce health disparities.

Before the pandemic shut the nation down, we were fortunate to hold NIMHD’s first scientific symposium, marking our milestone year, hosting over 2,000 in-person and virtual attendees. Focusing on themes of partnership, innovation, and the role of social and health determinants in health disparities, we created a path for further exploration and research initiatives. Continue reading “NIMHD 10: A Year in Review and a Path Forward” →

Help NIMHD Share Visions of Health Equity

Posted on January 5, 2021January 5, 2021 by NIMHD

NIMHD Art Challenge -- Graphic

By Gina Roussos, Ph.D.
Health Policy Analyst, Office of the Director
National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities

Are you looking for a fun, engaging, and meaningful activity to keep the quarantine blues at bay? Look no further! The National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) invites you and your loved ones to participate in the Envisioning Health Equity Art Challenge—a competition inviting teens (16-18 years) and adults to create images (paintings, drawings, photos, digital art, etc.) that represent NIMHD’s vision: an America in which all populations will have an equal opportunity to live long, healthy, and productive lives.

During these challenging times, this art competition gives us all the opportunity to take a break from the present for a moment and instead imagine a marvelous, hopefully not-too-distant future in which health disparities based on race and ethnicity, geography, socioeconomic status, and sexual and gender identity are but distant memories. Continue reading “Help NIMHD Share Visions of Health Equity” →

The Power of Trust and Truth

Posted on December 15, 2020December 15, 2020 by NIMHD

CEAL OpEd Social Card_English 11.20.2020

Getting and sharing the facts about COVID-19, trusting science can help turn tide for pandemic-strapped communities of color

NOTE: This post originally appeared as an Op-Ed on BlackDoctor.org and in La Vision Newspaper

Co-authored by
Gary H. Gibbons, M.D., Director National Heart, Lung, Blood Institute
Eliseo J. Pérez-Stable, M.D., Director National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities

COVID-19 has killed more than 230,000 people in the U.S., and the death toll continues to rise at a rate of about 1,000 per day [see recent data at CDC]. We know, however, that families and communities don’t count their losses in thousands or hundreds; they count them one-by-one – a father, a teacher, a sister, a friend, a nurse, a son, a Tribal elder, a church member. And these losses hurt. Continue reading “The Power of Trust and Truth” →

Carving My Own Path: From First-Generation Latina Undergraduate Student to Minority Health Researcher

Posted on October 21, 2020June 8, 2021 by NIMHD

Coreas Saida Headshot_

By Saida Coreas, B.S.
Postbaccalaureate IRTA Fellow
Division of Intramural Research, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

Saida Coreas, B.S. Postbaccalaureate IRTA Fellow

Hoping to build a stable life away from civil war, my parents immigrated to the United States from El Salvador. Growing up, I experienced firsthand the barriers to health care access and utilization within my household and in my community. My mother and father suffered from heart disease and cancer, respectively. Like many immigrant families, my siblings and I often served as translators and health advocates when it came to doctor visits or medication use/instructions. As a child, I would have never imagined how these cumulative actions would lead to my pursuit in understanding the need to reduce and encourage the elimination of health disparities in my adult life. Today, I am a part of that driving force to make a positive change for my family, my community, and generations after me.

About a year and a half ago, I packed my bags and moved across the country from Los Angeles to begin my post-baccalaureate Intramural Research Training Award (Postbac IRTA) fellowship in Bethesda, Maryland. The NIH Postbac IRTA fellowship is a 1-to 2-year research opportunity for recent college graduates interested in applying to graduate or professional health school (e.g., medicine, dental, nursing, veterinary sciences). Continue reading “Carving My Own Path: From First-Generation Latina Undergraduate Student to Minority Health Researcher” →

NIMHD Investigator Forums on the Impact of COVID-19 on Research Communities

Posted on October 7, 2020October 7, 2020 by NIMHD

NIMHD Co-authors - COVID-19 PI Forum

Jennifer Alvidrez, Ph.D.
Rick Berzon, Dr.P.H., P.A.
Dorothy Castille, Ph.D.
Nancy L. Jones, Ph.D., M.A.
CDR Nadra Tyus, Dr.P.H., M.P.H.
Division of Scientific Programs

The impact of the COVID-19 outbreak has strained daily life for people living in the United States, affecting nearly every sector including biomedical research. The disruption has also disproportionally affected the lives and livelihoods of populations that experience health disparities, which are also the populations that NIMHD’s research addresses.

To provide an opportunity to better understand the impact of COVID-19 on researchers and research funded by the institute, NIMHD hosted four COVID-19 NIMHD Investigator Forums this summer. NIMHD staff who hosted the events were Drs. Jennifer Alvidrez, Rick Berzon, Dorothy Castille, Nancy Jones and Nadra Tyus. We knew that the COVID-19 pandemic created many challenges for our research community and learned of the creative strategies they developed to navigate these challenges using their extensive connections with health disparity communities. We structured the forum to hear directly from NIMHD Principal Investigators (PIs) about their observations and thoughts in three areas:

1) Impact of COVID-19 on the communities where research is conducted
2) Strategies to modify recruitment, data collection, and/or intervention protocols
3) Understanding and addressing the impact of the pandemic on study outcomes. Continue reading “NIMHD Investigator Forums on the Impact of COVID-19 on Research Communities” →

National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month Blog Series

Posted on July 31, 2020July 31, 2020 by NIMHD

July Is the Best Month to Start a
New Year of Working on Mental Health

Harold W. Neighbors, Ph.D.
Division of Intramural Research
National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities

Dr. Harold W. Neighbors

When I started graduate school in the mid-1970s, I had just one seemingly simple research question. I wanted to know: “Who had the higher rate of mental illness, Black or White Americans?” I remember the puzzled looks from fellow students, as most of them already knew the answer – “Blacks of course!” Their reasoning made good sense – life was harder for Blacks in the United States, and a life spent fighting against racial discrimination can lead to emotional damage.

So, I began my investigation, uncovering layer after layer of complexity surrounding what I thought was a simple question. My motivations were both professional and personal. Personally, like many families, Black and White, mine had revealed a few semi-private stories about “bad nerves” (the preferred language of emotional distress used to describe mental health problems) that were offered for consumption in the smallest of morsels. And even though my curiosity was never quite satisfied, I instinctively knew not to push for too many details. Professionally, there was my first “big” assignment as a graduate research assistant on a new, innovative study, the “National Survey of Black Americans”¹. I wrote my dissertation on one aspect of the subject: help-seeking behavior for mental health problems, using data from the National Survey of Black Americans. My dissertation research told me that Black Americans need to stop, look, listen, and most importantly, tell the truth about our feelings. The key to sound mental health is what people of color decide to do about profound sadness, feelings of helplessness resulting from attacks on our self-esteem, and hopelessness due to unjust institutional impediments that erode aspirations for achieving one’s best life². My investigation revealed that when feelings become unbearably painful, they are symptoms. Once you are symptomatic, you need to get help. It is just that simple; and difficult; and complicated. Continue reading “National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month Blog Series” →

National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month Blog Series

Posted on July 22, 2020July 23, 2020 by NIMHD

American Indian/Alaska Native Mental Health: Our Voices, Traditions and Values to Strengthen our Collective Wellness

Victoria M. O’Keefe, Ph.D. (Cherokee/Seminole Nations of Oklahoma)
Mathuram Santosham Endowed Chair in Native American Health, Assistant Professor, Licensed Clinical Psychologist
Associate Director, Center for American Indian Health
Department of International Health, Social & Behavioral Interventions
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Dr. Victoria M. O’Keefe

My late grandma, Virginia Feather Revas, was a Cherokee Nation citizen, a fluent speaker of ᏣᎳᎩ ᎦᏬᏂᎯᏍᏗ (Cherokee language), and a Community Health Representative (CHR) for our tribe. CHRs are embedded within their tribe and serve important roles in health promotion for their communities.¹ My grandmother served our tribe proudly and instilled in me the importance of working on behalf of our people. My favorite memories with her, from visits to Oklahoma, were going to our family’s creek to catch ᏥᏍᏛᎾ (crawfish) for dinner, attending stomp dances and pow wows, and admiring her talent for beadwork and quilt making. These memories are important teachings that I value now more than ever.

Continue reading “National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month Blog Series” →

Getting and sharing the facts about COVID-19, trusting science can help turn tide for pandemic-strapped communities of color

July Is the Best Month to Start a New Year of Working on Mental Health

American Indian/Alaska Native Mental Health: Our Voices, Traditions and Values to Strengthen our Collective Wellness

July Is the Best Month to Start a
New Year of Working on Mental Health