By Eve J. Higginbotham, SM, MD
On January 27, 2016 PSOM will welcome Dr. Richard Carmona to campus as our second MLK Health Equity Keynote Speaker.
As the 17th Surgeon General, Dr. Carmona made significant contributions in the areas of prevention, health disparities, health literacy, global health, and health diplomacy during his tenure. His keynote presentation will be augmented by our own Penn faculty: Dr. Jerry Johnson, Jaya Aysola MD, DTMH, MPH, Tiffani Johnson, MD, MSc, Shreya Kangovi, MD, MS and C. Neil Epperson, MD. At the end of this two hour discussion of challenges and solutions associated with achieving health equity, each of us…
Read more on Health Equity: A Dream or An Achievable Goal?
By Eve J. Higginbotham, SM, MD
There was good news and bad news out of Washington D.C. this week.
The good news is that the number of people without health insurance dropped in 2014 by 8.8 million, however there was no significant difference in the rates of poverty between the years of 2013 and 2014.[1] The annual report released by the U.S. Census Bureau[2] indicates for the fourth year in a row that rate of poverty was not significantly different from the previous year. Overall, more than 45 million Americans live in poverty, a number that seems staggering for one of the most affluent nations…
Read more on The Lack of Progress in Moving the Needle on Poverty Reaffirms the Need for Healthcare Transformation
By Eve J. Higginbotham, SM, MD
This month, the Department of Health and Human Services celebrates National Minority Health Month and more specifically acknowledges the 30th anniversary of the Margaret Heckler's Report on Black and Minority Health.
This month, the Department of Health and Human Services celebrates National Minority Health Month and more specifically acknowledges the 30th anniversary of the Margaret Heckler's Report on Black and Minority Health.[1] This report clearly "documented the existence of health disparities among, ethnic minorities in the United States and called such disparities "an affront both to our ideals and to the ongoing genius of American medicine."[2] …
Read more on Advancing Health Equity, Thirty Years Following the Heckler Report
By Eve J. Higginbotham, SM, MD
While the focus recently has been on the twitter phrase, “black lives matter,†as a physician it is important to underscore the premise that all lives matter. Understandably, the amplitude of voices has increased over the past several months following the tragic deaths of unarmed black men – staunch reminders that implicit bias has had a role in shaping our country, our politics, and our hearts since the birth of our nation.
Academic medicine is certainly not exempt from such bias, with the recent perspective in the NEJM, Bias, Black Lives, and Academic Medicine, leaving the reader with an…
Read more on All Lives Matter in Academic Medicine, Article By: Eve Higginbotham SM, MD, Diana Harris, MBe, PhD and Katherine Stamper, MBA
