May is Healthy Vision Month! The National Eye Institute (NEI) has theme for Healthy Vision Month—"Healthy Vision: A Family Focus" and "Visión saludable: ojos sanos para su familia." This is important because families of color, like Latinos, face barriers to eye health care. "We want to inspire families to team up and learn how to protect their vision together! We’re centering this year’s campaign around people who are more likely to have eye problems because of barriers in access to eye care," according to NEI. "A note to Spanish-speakers: Instead of directly translating, we purposefully transcreated some elements of the Healthy Vision Month content to make sure it’s culturally relevant." Here are five ways to promote health equity and healthy vision for families.
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Most of us know what rehabilitation is. It is care that can help you get back to normal or improve skills after a disease or injury. Unfortunately, rehab only takes place retroactively—after there is an issue. Prehabilitation, however, focuses on health before there is a problem. Loriana Hernandez-Aldama, an Emmy award-winning journalist, author, and cancer survivor, calls prehabilitation the mental and physical preparation a person can take to achieve good health, from stress reduction to healthier eating. Loriana Hernandez-Aldama joins the Salud Talks Podcast, Episode 39, to talk about the great need for prehabilitation to help Latinos stay healthy and ready to deal with disease. LISTEN! WHAT: A #SaludTalks Podcast discussion about prehabilitation ...
The National Eye Institute has launched the Eye on the Future campaign to encourage teens to pursue careers in science, specifically eye health and biomedical research. The campaign is kicking off with a video contest! For the video contest, open to teens nationally, high school students can submit 30-second-to-3-minute videos on several science-related categories, such as their favorite scientific discovery or the impact they'd like to make in the science world in 20 years. Students can record video submissions on their own or team up with a group of friends. Submissions are due May 1, 2022. "Winners will get cash prizes — to to $2,000 — plus the opportunity to visit the National Institutes of Health for a day," according to the National Eye Institute, part of the ...
By Robyn Towt
Breast Cancer Survivor in San Antonio My name is Robyn Towt. I am a three-time cancer survivor, most recently diagnosed with breast cancer in 2017 at the age of 44. I had stage one IDC that was found during my routine mammogram and ultrasound. I did not have any treatment, only a bilateral mastectomy and reconstruction with Mentor silicone breast implants. The implants caused an array of debilitating health issues, something that none of my doctors told me could happen. I had symptoms ranging from chronic migraines, rashes and extreme fatigue to debilitating insomnia, burning pain, heart palpitations, hair loss, difficulty breathing, difficulty swallowing and muscle pain. I had the implants removed after just four months and all of my symptoms completely ...
Many cancer patients in South Texas and beyond experience barriers in access to health care, insurance, immigration status, affordable housing, transportation, education, as well as cultural and linguistic barriers. This can dramatically impact their cancer outcomes. To address this issue, you’re invited to join us for “Addressing Social Needs in Efforts to Prevent and Reduce Cancer” at 1 p.m. CST on Feb. 10, 2022. This is the second webinar of a new series, “Let’s Address Health Equity Together.” This Zoom webinar will show how health care leaders can participate in advocacy for policy and system changes that address these health inequities and social needs, beyond providing more sensitive care and/or research. “This webinar will help doctors, nurses, ...
The Department of Population Health Sciences at UT Health San Antonio — home to the Salud America! program in the Institute for Health Promotion Research — is seeking two applicants for open-rank faculty positions in community behavioral health and biostatistics. The two positions will also serve in the Population Science and Prevention research program at the Mays Cancer Center, a National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center at UT Health San Antonio. Go here to apply or learn more about the community behavioral health position. Go here to apply or learn more about the biostatistician position. "Our goal is to recruit two faculty members who will establish meaningful community-based and community-engaged research in our diverse and medically underserved 38-county ...
Over 60 members of Salud America! endorsed our public comment to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in their request for feedback on as part of its draft Strategic Plan for 2022-2026. The draft was open for comment from Oct. 7 to Nov. 7, 2021. At Salud America!, we believe that improving healthcare by making it more accessible and culturally tailored for Latinos and other people of color will help build health equity. We believe this is possible through increasing diversity among research leaders and clinical trial participants, eliminating implicit bias in the doctor’s office, and hiring healthcare workers who can provide culturally relevant patient care. That’s why we submitted a comment from our leader, Dr. Amelie Ramirez.
Dr. Amelie Ramirez’s Comment ...
Stomach cancer, also called gastric cancer, disproportionately impacts Latinos. In fact, U.S. Latino men and women are twice as likely as their White peers to develop invasive gastric cancer, according to a 2021 report. But little is known about regional differences. That is why Dr. Dorothy Long Parma of UT Health San Antonio and her colleagues conducted a study to analyze gastric cancer rates for Latinos in South Texas, Texas, and the United States. "We found that overall stomach cancer incidence rates in Texas and South Texas were higher in Latinos than in non-Latino Whites, despite lower frequencies in the state and South Texas region compared to the United States," said Long Parma, assistant professor/research at the Institute for Health Promotion Research (IHPR) in the ...
The patient economic burden for cancer in the U.S. was $21.09 billion, according to the Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer in JNCI: The Journal of the National Cancer Institute. “[This total is] made up of patient out-of-pocket costs of $16.22 billion and patient time costs of $4.87 billion,” according to the annual report. As technology, cancer research, and medicine advances, the effectiveness of therapy treatments only seem to proliferate. Though this is good news, the reality is that modern cancer treatments are a financial burden to people of color, who also face barriers to equitable cancer care. Latinos in particular face obstacles such as poor health literacy, concerns about test efficacy, and language and cultural beliefs related to cancer, ...
