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Latinos face inequities in non-medical drivers of health (NMDoH), from housing to healthcare, making it harder to achieve health fairness.
Watch the UT Health San Antonio webinar — “How to Address Non-Medical Drivers of Health in Our Clinics and Systems” — which was held at 11 a.m. CST on Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023, to explore how healthcare settings can care for patients’ medical and NMDoH needs.
Panelists from UT Health San Antonio, Nemours Children’s Health, HOPE Clinic in Houston, the American Cancer Society, and Genentech unpacked NMDoH screening, a strategy that clinics, hospitals, and healthcare systems can use to check patients for social needs and connect them to needed resources.
This is a part of a webinar of a series, “Let’s Improve Health in South Texas and Beyond.”
The series is a collaboration of the Salud America! program at the Institute for Health Promotion Research at UT Health San Antonio, the Mays Cancer Center at UT Health San Antonio, and Genentech.
Learn about the Speakers for this Webinar on Clinical Trials
Here are the panelists for the webinar, which will follow a question-and-answer discussion session format moderated by Dr. Amelie Ramirez.
Dr. Amelie G. Ramirez (moderator) is an internationally recognized researcher in health promotion and behavioral change, is director of Salud America! and leader of the Institute for Health Promotion Research in the Department of Population Health Sciences at UT Health San Antonio. She has spent over 30 years directing research on human and organizational communication to reduce chronic disease and cancer among all people, including cancer risk factors, clinical trial recruitment, tobacco prevention, and obesity prevention. She also is associate director of cancer outreach and engagement at the NCI-designated Mays Cancer Center at UT Health San Antonio.
Dr. Carlos Roberto Jaén is professor and chair of family and community medicine at UT Health San Antonio aims to improve preventive care for individuals of all ages and building high-performance primary care offices. He has been selected to the Best Doctors in America yearly since 2002. He was elected member of the National Academy of Medicine (formerly known as the Institute of Medicine) of the National Academies in 2013. He was also co-director of the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) Center for Research in Family Medicine and Primary Care. Over 20 years, the Center studied almost 500 mostly independent, community-based primary care practices and completed the evaluation of the AAFPs national demonstration project of the patient-centered medical home. He received a Generalist Physician Faculty Scholar Award from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and a Cancer Control Career Development Award for Primary Care Physicians from the American Cancer Society.
Mr. Alex Koster currently serves as the Senior Director of Analytics & Technology for the Nemours Value Based Services Organization. In this role he is tasked with developing and implementing a data and technology strategy for the successful execution of value-based agreements and population health. Mr. Koster’s 18-year background at Nemours includes extensive work in Population Health, Value Based Care, Organizational Strategy, Data and Analytics, Meaningful Use and HIE, Revenue Cycle Optimization, Patient Satisfaction and Employee Engagement. Prior to joining Nemours, Alex worked in the testing industry, supporting examination development for licensing and certification in construction, insurance and industrial trades. He received both his Bachelor and Master’s degrees from the University of Florida, Gainesville
Dr. Andrea Caracostis is executive director and CEO of HOPE Clinic, a Federally Qualified Health Center Serving Southwest Houston, Texas. HOPE Clinic is one of many community health centers in the US that has implemented a NMDoH screening program with the support of the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC), which helped create the PRAPARE® NMDoH screening tool. As a physician with a Master’s in Public Health, Caracostis has over 10 years experience working with migrant and community health centers with special, vulnerable populations. She worked as a provider at the 330 funded Migrant Health Center (MHC), and served as a consultant to the Migrant Clinicians Network providing technical assistance to Community Health Centers around the country.
Meg McKenzie works for Genentech. She develops strategies to drive participation of patient populations in clinical research and to advance health improvement. Gaining patient, clinician and community insights early in program development is integral to developing what is important to patients and improving access to medicines and treatments for all patients, regardless of background or other factors. She has over 25 years of clinical development experience working at sites and in industry, and spanning multiple diseases, including oncology, ophthalmology, immunology, neurology, infectious and rare diseases. Meghan received her Master’s Degree in Human Biology at San Francisco State University and her Bachelor’s Degree in Economics at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
Rosa Villoch-Santiago is Associate Director of Community Partnerships at the American Cancer Society, where she manages partner relationships with health systems and community-based organizations through convening, implementing evidence-based strategies, sharing resources and driving system policies and practices to improve the lives of cancer patients and their caregivers. Rosa is a bilingual professional in the non-profit and public health sectors who helps organizations by finding solutions through the development, implementation, and management of programs and strategic partnerships to effect health system policy changes and to achieve health improvement and linguistically appropriate manner. The American Cancer Society is supporting Dr. Ramirez’s Avanzando Equidad de Salud: Latino Cancer Health Equity Research Center at UT Health San Antonio.
Behind the Webinar Series on Health Improvement
The “Let’s Improve Health in South Texas and Beyond” webinar series is a collaboration of the Salud America! program at the Institute for Health Promotion Research at UT Health San Antonio, the Mays Cancer Center at UT Health San Antonio, and Genentech.
Four webinars are planned for 2023.
Six webinars occurred from 2021-2022.
Salud America! is a national organization that creates relevant and research-based stories, videos, and tools to inspire people to start and support healthy changes to policies, systems, and environments where Latino children and families can live, learn, work, and play.
The Mays Cancer Center, also known as the UT Health San Antonio MD Anderson Cancer Center, has a mission to decrease the burden of cancer in San Antonio, South Texas and beyond. We bring South Texas a level of exceptional care that is comparable with the nation’s most respected programs. More patients put their trust in our program because we have a unique understanding of our community’s cancer care needs. We excel in delivering advanced therapies.
Founded more than 40 years ago as the first biotechnology company, Genentech is dedicated to the rigorous pursuit of science and the development and delivery of life-changing medicines for people facing serious diseases. Headquartered in South San Francisco, California and a proud member of the Roche Group, our community is united by a common purpose and sense of urgency to transform the future of healthcare. Learn more at gene.com.
By The Numbers
142
Percent
Expected rise in Latino cancer cases in coming years
