UCLA launches program to study health care
By
WESTWOOD Hoping to determine the root of lingering health care disparities affecting minorities with chronic diseases the UCLA Department of Family Medicine, with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, has launched the Network for Multicultural Research on Health and Healthcare.
The network aims to create a new crop of researches versed in health care irregularities.
The new group — to be directed by Dr. Michael Rodríguez, associate professor of family medicine, and William Vega, professor of family medicine, both of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA — will draw on faculty from several universities across the country.
“Research has shown us that disparities in health care do exist for certain racial and ethnic groups in the United States,” Rodríguez said. “As the population of the United States becomes more and more diverse, it is increasingly important for us to understand the impact of these disparities and devise methods to reduce and eliminate them.”
The network’s primary aims are to understand how social, ethnic, linguistic and economic factors affect the way health care providers serve minority populations. It hopes to accomplish this by studying how personal, cultural and social factors promote or impede adequate health care and disease management.
The network’s senior investigators are Dr. José J. Escarce, Dr. Carol Mangione, Dr. Leo S. Morales and Ninez Ponce of UCLA; Margarita Alegría of Harvard University; Dr. Bonnie Duran of the University of Washington; Kyriakos Markides of the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston; Dr. Eliseo Pérez-Stable of the University of California, San Francisco; and Roberto Suro of the University of Southern California.
The project each year will also support five Healthcare Quality Scholars who will address health issues affecting people from various minority groups, with a primary focus on diabetes and obesity, cardiovascular disease, respiratory illnesses, depression and cancer. This work could potentially aid in the development of successful, independent scientists and increase the number of researchers addressing quality of care for minorities.
The UCLA Department of Family Medicine provides comprehensive primary care to entire families, from new-borns to seniors.Its services include low-risk obstetrical care and prenatal and inpatient care at Santa Monica–UCLA Medical Center and Orthopedic Hospital and outpatient care at the Les Kelley Family Health Center in Santa Monica and the Mid-Valley Family Health Center in Van Nuys.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on February 28, 2008. Read the original PDF.