Grants Awarded For Health Disparities Research, Hispanic Health Students Receive Scholarships, Hispanic Women Taught To Educate Peers

Main Category: Public Health
Also Included In: Medical Students / Training
Article Date: 28 Jan 2008 - 7:00 PDT

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Aetna: Under a new agreement with Aetna, Earvin "Magic" Johnson will be speaking with urban communities about wellness, exercise and healthful eating. According to Aetna, the effort aims to "empower businesses and ethnically diverse communities to make informed choices about their health care options" (Hartford Courant, 1/24).

California State University-Fresno: The school has received a five-year, $4.5 million grant from the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities and will use the funds to create a biomedical research center focusing on racial and ethnic health disparities. The money will go toward constructing the center, as well as purchasing laboratory equipment that can help with research conducted at the center. For instance, the center will house a mass spectrometer that can detect differences in proteins, equipment to find differences in DNA and computers that will interpret the results (Anderson, Fresno Bee, 1/22).

National Hispanic Health Foundation: The foundation, which is affiliated with New York University's Robert Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, scholarships valued at $2,000 and $5,000 to nine professional students from California. The scholarships go to students in medicine, nursing, dentistry and public health who have demonstrated a commitment to improving the health of Hispanic communities (National Hispanic Health Foundation release, 1/18).

Planned Parenthood of Nassau County: The Planned Parenthood affiliate has started a Spanish-language campaign to inform members of the Hispanic community in Nassau County, N.Y., about the services it offers. The affiliate has rebranded its center as "La Casa Amarilla en la Cuesta," or the Yellow House on the Hill, because a "house is much less intimidating than a health center," Giokazta Molina-Schneider, a bilingual sexuality educator at the center, said. In addition, Molina-Schneider created a peer outreach program in which she trained and recruited Hispanic women to educate their peers about the services the center offers, as well as how to prevent pregnancy, HIV/AIDS and the human papillomavirus (Enriquez, Long Island Newsday, 1/20).

University of North Carolina: The Program in Racial Disparities and Cardiovascular Disease, a collaboration among researchers at UNC-Chapel Hill and East Carolina University, has received more than $560,000 in federal funds. The project seeks to better understand racial health disparities (Fisher, Raleigh News & Observer, 1/19).

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