Leonel Rodriguez got some terrible news in November 2019. Doctors diagnosed Rodriguez, a South Texas resident, with mantle cell lymphoma – an aggressive, rare form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. After going through several treatment options, his disease persisted. He soon learned about a potentially beneficial clinical trial for lymphoma patients at the Mays Cancer Center at UT Health San Antonio. Clinical trials help researchers learn how to better slow, manage, and treat diseases like cancer and Alzheimer’s. “[Clinical trials were] the best way because, you know, I feel good now with the treatment,” Rodriguez said. “Now I feel I've been feeling well, and well, well.”
Rodriguez’s Decision to Participate in a Clinical Trial
Rodriguez first experienced problems in ...
During Hispanic Heritage Month, Salud America! is celebrating Latino trailblazers, historical figures, and inspirational stories. In this article spotlight, we will recognize Ildaura Murillo-Rohde, PhD, RN, FAAN. Dr. Murillo-Rhode was a nurse and professor who strived to serve underrepresented communities and create equal opportunities for Latinos within health professions.
Early Life of Murillo-Rohde
Dr. Murillo-Rhode was born in on Sept. 26, 1920, in Panama. She immigrated to San Antonio, Texas, in 1945. Born into a family of health physicians, Rohde studied to become a nurse. Dr. Murillo-Rohde earned a nursing diploma from the Medical and Surgical Hospital School of Nursing in San Antonio, Texas, according to the NYAM Center for History. Early on, she realized ...
In childhood, many of us gazed into the night sky to glimpse a shooting star and make a wish. For Franklin Chang Diaz, he wished to explore the stars. Chang Diaz would go on to do just that after becoming the first Latino American to go to space after he was selected by NASA in 1980 and flew in a mission in 1986.
Early Life of Chang Diaz
Franklin Chang Diaz was born on April 5, 1950, in San José, Costa Rica. As a child he imagined himself being launched into space to explore the planets. “Growing up in Costa Rica, Franklin Chang Díaz and his friends would put chairs sideways inside a big cardboard box in his backyard and pretend it was a rocket ship. Sitting with their backs to the ground, they would go through the countdown, imitate the launch procedures they’d heard ...
We asked for your help to speak up for equitable policies so that everyone has a fair, just opportunity to be their healthiest, and 186 people responded. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) has nominated an ad hoc committee to analyze federal policies that contribute to preventable and unfair health outcomes in America, particularly among Latinos and other racial/ethnic minority populations. The committee wanted personal and/or professional feedback by Sept. 30, 2022, on: Examples of federal policies that create and/or contribute to racial/ethnic health inequities
Examples of policies that promote racial/ethnic health equity
The most important considerations when prioritizing action regarding federal policies to advance racial and ethnic ...
Update: On Sept. 29, 2022 the US Department of Education updated its loan forgiveness plan. Privately held federal student loans must have been consolidated before September 29, 2022 to be eligible for debt relief. CNN reports that around 770,000 borrowers will be impacted by this update, which comes the same day six states sued President Biden over the forgiveness plan. President Biden made history in August 2022 when he announced his student loan forgiveness plan. Certain details of the plan are still being ironed out, such as how much the plan will cost the federal government and taxpayers. Nevertheless, college students and graduates across the nation are breathing a sigh of relief, as many of them will qualify for loan forgiveness.
What Does the Student Loan Forgiveness ...
Brownsville Police Sgt. Billy Killebrew knows a lot of children experience divorce, witness domestic violence, and suffer other trauma at home or in the community. He wants to help those children. So he worked with advocates to start the Handle With Care Program at the newly opened Jubilee Leadership Academy campus in Brownsville, Texas. For the program, Brownsville police notify campus leaders when they encounter children at a traumatic scene, so school personnel can provide support the next day, as needed. “We never know what kids go through at home, they come to school, and sometimes they just don't feel like being there. They're in a bad mood, and just like us, as adults, you know, we have a bad day and not everybody knows a source of that bad day,” said Killebrew, the ...
UT Health San Antonio and other Texas universities are looking for healthy adults age 18 and older to participate in research studies across the state. Learn more about this opportunity and how you can participate!
What is the Aim of the Studies?
The University of Texas System Health Biobank Consortium is a collaborative effort among eight UT institutions to standardize and expand access to human biospecimens. Biospecimens are materials from the human body. They include tissues (hair, skin, or organs) and fluids (blood, urine, or saliva). These samples contain cellular, molecular, and chemical information. Along with the samples, biosbanks store biospecimens with personal and medical information (age, sex, race/ethnicity) and details about a donor’s lifetime environmental ...
Latino or Hispanic-serving colleges and universities have risen 94% in the last 10 years, from 293 in 2010 to 569 in 2020, according to a recent report by Excelencia in Education. Now 20 of the largest Latino-serving colleges are forming a new alliance to double Latino doctorates and increase the number of Latino professors by 20% by 2030. The Alliance of Hispanic Serving Research Universities, announced June 2022, aims to help increase Latino representation in higher education. Latinos make up less than 6% of US doctoral students and only 5% of college faculty. “Hispanics are the largest minority group in the United States and are now 17% of the workforce, yet they continue to be underrepresented in higher education,” Dr. Heather Wilson, Chair of the Alliance, said in a news ...
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, many schools had the flexibility to offer school meals free to all public-school students. Now, some of this flexibility is expiring and many schools can only serve free meals to certain students starting this 2022-2023 school year, according to the USDA. “As we all get through this change, we ask everyone to be patient with school nutrition professionals and thank them for working to help children during such a tough time. The [USDA] and the Biden-Harris Administration fully support the school leaders and school meal heroes running the school meals programs,” according to the USDA. For Latino students, whose families often face wage gaps and nutrition insecurity, these changes could have a significant impact. Here is what these recent ...
