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The UT Health Science Center at San Antonio and UT San Antonio are teaming up to launch the San Antonio Life Sciences Institute (SALSI) Distinguished Health Disparities Lecture Series, which will periodically bring some of the top U.S. health disparities experts to San Antonio to offer the latest trends, tools and advancements in the fight against cancer health disparities among the underserved.
The series starts Oct. 20 and runs until August 2011.
The series will feature speakers who can enhance the knowledge and abilities of local doctors and researchers, who then can apply learned techniques and strategies in their labs, clinics and communities.
South Texas residents, particularly Hispanics/Latinos, experience many health disparities—the disproportionately higher incidence and mortality of certain conditions vs. whites.
“Given this region’s unequal burden of cancer, this SALSI lecture series will feature outstanding health disparities experts from across the U.S. in order to expose our local physicians and researchers to novel methods of addressing health disparities in our region,” said Dr. Amelie G. Ramirez, a disparities researcher and director of the Institute for Health Promotion Research (IHPR) at the Health Science Center.
The IHPR, the team behind SaludToday, is helping to coordinate the series with funding from SALSI.
SALSI was approved by state lawmakers in 2001 in coordination with The University of Texas System Board of Regents to build and strengthen collaboration between the Health Science Center and UTSA.
The first lecture in the new series, set for 4 p.m. Oct. 20 at the Greehey Children’s Cancer Research Institute, 8403 Floyd Curl Drive in San Antonio, features Dr. Rena Pasick.
Dr. Pasick, professor medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, is a noted population-based cancer control researcher. She conducts community- and clinic-based intervention studies to increase the use of and access to breast and cervical cancer screening among ethnically diverse communities. She also developed a training program to encourage minority students and professionals to pursue doctoral degrees.
Other prestigious speakers are being recruited.
Future lectures are expected to be featured live online in the future, as well as recorded and published online. For details, e-mail acostadl@uthscsa.edu or visit the IHPR’s home page in the coming weeks.
By The Numbers
25.1
percent
of Latinos remain without health insurance coverage
