UT Health San Antonio and UTHealth Houston are looking for healthy Latinos to join their “Healthy Control Study” to help uncover new ways to treat disease. “Controls” are healthy people who donate a biospecimen – such as blood, saliva, or tissue – that researchers can use to compare to people of a similar age and race/ethnicity who also have cancer, Alzheimer’s, or other health conditions. A half-hour appointment with a one-time blood draw is all that’s needed for the new UT Health San Antonio and UTHealth Houston study. “You don’t have to be sick to help advance medical research. Researchers need information from healthy people to compare with people who have a disease so they can learn more about disease and develop new treatments,” said Dr. Amelie ...
Since the 1960s, community health centers (also called Federally Qualified Health Centers) have made it their mission to increase people’s access to primary healthcare by reducing barriers, such as cost, lack of insurance, distance, and language. But beyond clinic walls, many people have big social needs, like unstable housing, that hurt their health. That is why the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC) helped create a social determinants of health (SDoH) screening tool – PRAPARE® (Protocol for Responding to and Assessing Patient’s Assets, Risks and Experiences) – to enable community health centers to identify social needs among patients and refer them to local resources for aid. Today, PRAPARE® helps hundreds of community health centers, like the ...
Nemours Children’s Health knows healthcare is more than just medicine. The conditions in which we are born, grow, live, work, and age – known as social determinants of health (SDoH) – can greatly help or harm our health. That is why Nemours gave multiple leaders, including Kelli Thompson, director of population health management; Na-Tasha Williams, population health specialist; and Alex Koster, senior director of the value-based care data analytics and IT department; the space to begin developing a SDoH screening program in 2018. The SDoH screening program is now fully implemented or being piloted in multiple Nemours locations, including in Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Florida. To screen patients for social needs, such as food and housing insecurity, Nemours uses an ...
Obesity can stem from genetics, food and activity, and social and environmental inequities. We also know from past research that brain structure and mental function are linked to being overweight or obese. Now a new study has identified differences in the brain’s neural pathways that help explain differences in obesity among men and women. “In women with obesity, changes in the brain tended to be centered on regions related to emotions, while in men with obesity, the changes tended to be found in regions that play a role in gut sensations, such as how hungry or full a person feels,” according to NBC News. For this study, researchers from the Goodman-Luskin Microbiome Center at UCLA studied brain scans – along with participants’ reports of their behavioral and mental ...
Knowing where germs live and thrive is important for infection control in healthcare. When you understand where germs live and how they can spread from place to place and make people sick, the infection control actions you take to keep them from spreading become second nature.
How Do Germs Spread?
Germs must be moved from person to person, place to place, or between places and people for them to potentially get someone sick. When you’re thinking about the risk for germs to spread in healthcare, the first step is to think through where germs live. A “reservoir” is a place where germs live and thrive. Like a habitat. Reservoirs can be in the human body – the skin, the gastrointestinal system, the respiratory system, including the nose, throat, and lungs, and the ...
Did you know that our health is influenced by many non-medical factors? That’s right. The conditions in which we are born, grow, live, work, and age – known as social determinants of health (SDoH) – can greatly help or harm our health. As a result, more healthcare facilities are screening patients for SDoH through written questionnaires or verbal questions. Screenings can cover a variety of topics, such as mental and financial health and access to healthy food, transportation, and affordable medication. SDoH screening can help medical providers better understand and address patients’ social needs, which can be beneficial for vulnerable patients who face health inequities, such as Latinos. If patients screen positive for social needs, providers can connect them to ...
In the small rural Central California town of Selma, a young Trinidad Solis watched long stretches of farmland float by through the car window. She listened to her parents in the front seat discuss their upcoming doctor’s appointment in Spanish. As Mexican immigrant farmworkers, Solis’ parents faced hardships accessing healthcare, including a language barrier. Since her parents were monolingual Spanish-speakers, Solis often served as translator during her parents’ health appointments and helped them navigate the complex healthcare system. These childhood interactions spurred Solis’ desire to become a bilingual, culturally sensitive family physician who could provide healthcare, including infection prevention and control services, to vulnerable patients like her ...
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) can be debilitating and place a significant burden on patients, their families, employers, and the government. While genetics and health inequities do play a role in the development and progression of RA, social issues, such as lack of family and friend support, can also play a role in the progression of the disease. Researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Center want to learn more about how social and genetic factors affect RA in Latinos, who often face social issues when it comes to health. You can help by participating in a clinical trial no matter where you live in the US!
Rheumatoid Arthritis Study Qualifications
To be eligible for this clinical trial, you must be age 18 or older and of Hispanic/Latino heritage. You may ...
Health literacy is defined by the CDC as “the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions.” In today’s world, health literacy is crucial for community members and health professionals, alike, to make everyday decisions and achieve health equity. However, many underserved and racial/ethnic communities around the country face barriers to health equity including access to health care, financial instability, and housing/transportation insecurity endangering their health. That is why Jason Rosenfeld, DrPH, MPH, and Melanie Stone, DrPH (c), MPH, MEd are helping build Health Confianza – a partnership between UT Health San Antonio, The University of Texas San ...
