{"id":118960,"date":"2016-11-03T11:57:23","date_gmt":"2016-11-03T15:57:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?post_type=school-college-post&p=118960"},"modified":"2016-11-03T15:05:29","modified_gmt":"2016-11-03T19:05:29","slug":"national-summit-tackles-role-geography-health-disparities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2016\/11\/national-summit-tackles-role-geography-health-disparities\/","title":{"rendered":"National Summit Tackles the Role of Geography in Health Disparities"},"content":{"rendered":"

The role that geography plays in health disparities was one of the central topics at the second annual National Health Disparities Elimination Summit, recently held at UConn Health.<\/p>\n

The two-day summit, Oct. 28 and 29, attended by nearly 200 people, examined how some physical, healthcare and social environments may create or exacerbate health disparities, especially in African-American and Latino communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour zip code should not determine how long you live,\u201d said Mustafa Santiago Ali<\/a>, senior advisor at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Environmental Justice & Community Revitalization Division. \u201cFor me it\u2019s all about moving vulnerable communities from surviving to thriving.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"summit_cochrane-rhule-padilla-everette-panel_102916-disparities\"<\/a>
summit_cochrane-rhule-padilla-everette-panel_102916-disparities<\/div>
Panel discussion with Adrienne Cochrane, president and CEO of the Urban League of Greater Hartford; Dr. Gary Rhule, director, Health and Human Services Department for the City of Hartford; Frances Padilla, president, Universal Health Care Foundation; and Tekisha D. Everette, adjunct assistant professor, Department of Community Medicine, UConn School of Medicine and executive director, Health Equity Solutions (Photo: CICATS).<\/div><\/div>\"summit_ltgov-wyman-welcome_102916\"<\/a>
summit_ltgov-wyman-welcome_102916<\/div>
Connecticut's Lt. Gov., Nancy Wyman, kicked off the summit, providing welcome remarks to the attendees in Keller Auditorium at UConn Health (Photo: CICATS).<\/div><\/div>\"summit_l-reynolds2_102916-disparities\"<\/a>
summit_l-reynolds2_102916-disparities<\/div>
Mott Children\u2019s Medical Center of Flint, Mich. president and CEO, Dr. Lawrence Reynolds, who is also a pediatrician, gave a stirring lecture on the warning signs and aftermath of the lead water crisis in Flint.<\/div><\/div>\"disparities-rotunda\"<\/a>
disparities-rotunda<\/div>
The two-day summit at UConn Health provided opportunities for health disparities experts from across Connecticut and the nation to network and learn from each other (Photo: CICATS).<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n

Among the public health issues discussed at the summit, \u201cLiving in America Today: Transforming Environments to Eliminate Health Disparities,\u201d was the water crisis in Flint, Mich. Dr. Lawrence Reynolds, president & CEO, Mott Children\u2019s Medical Center and a member of the Flint Water Advisory Task Force, addressed the ongoing water crisis there.<\/p>\n

“The ultimate purpose of this summit is to move the needle toward the actual elimination of health disparities,\u201d said Dr. Linda Barry<\/a>, chief operating officer for the Connecticut Institute for Clinical and Translational Science <\/a>that hosted the event in collaboration with the W. Montague Cobb\/NMA Health Institute.<\/a><\/p>\n

Some of the other key speakers <\/a>included Dr. Gary Rhule, director of health, City of Hartford Health Department; Dr. Richard Allen Williams, president-elect, National Medical Association and founder, Association of Black Cardiologists; and Dr. Joan Y. Reede, dean, Diversity and Community Partnership and professor of medicine, Harvard Medical School.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere we live matters,\u201d noted UConn Health\u2019s Dr. Cato T. Laurencin<\/a>, CEO of CICATS. \u201cWe encourage all to work in unison to improve health outcomes and accept the challenges to improve lives here in Connecticut and on a national level.\u201d<\/p>\n

The summit was sponsored by the Connecticut Legislative Black & Puerto Rican Caucus.
\n\u201cWe hope this event becomes a springboard,\u201d said Laurencin. \u201cI am confident together we will overcome the challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ali echoed that message in his remarks. \u201cHow blessed we truly are. We have an opportunity to help make change,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gathering together state and national experts, UConn Health hosted its second annual National Health Disparities Elimination Summit focusing on the role that geography plays in health disparities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":98,"featured_media":118963,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1868],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[1873],"class_list":["post-118960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-meds"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-05 17:26:00","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/98"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118960"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118960\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":119001,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118960\/revisions\/119001"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/118963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118960"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=118960"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=118960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}