The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV), the second largest Hispanic-serving institution in the nation, has a special focus on health disparities. The UTRGV founded the School of Medicine (SOM) in 2015 to serve as an educational, clinical, and research facility for the highly underserved populations along the US- Mexico border. As part of its mission, in 2017 the SOM began hosting an annual Research Symposium on health disparities, the first of its kind in the Rio Grande Valley and one in which over half the participants are minorities and women. Considering enthusiastic participation from US and Mexico border institutions, the UTRGV-SOM plans to host the ?International Conference on Cancer Health Disparities? in September 2020. This International Conference will be expanded to take advantage of the opportunity for continued medical education for our diverse populations and to continue emphasis on minority health and cancer health disparities in US-Mexico border areas. This conference complements well the mission of the AACR Annual and AACR cancer health disparity meetings. To date, UTRGV has successfully held three research symposia with 300 attendees each year. Meetings include a nationally known keynote speaker, six plenary sessions, abstracts and posters presented by students, researchers, fellows, faculty and their colleagues from neighboring border institutions. UTRGV-SOM respectfully requests support from the NIH NCI for the 4th Annual Research Symposium entitled ?International Conference on Cancer Health Disparities,? to be held from September 11-12, 2020. NIH funds will be used to invite topnotch cancer health disparity researchers and young scientists (competitive basis) from national and international institutions, including third-world countries. Funds will also be used to successfully implement our scientific agenda over two days, showcasing collaborative community-engaged research where researchers, practitioners, and community partners address global cancer health disparities in underserved populations. This International Conference also closely aligns with the mission of the NCI (NCI Global Health Center) and NIMHD, that is, to support global cancer research and cancer health disparity research to advance scientific knowledge and help all people live longer and maintain a high-quality lifestyle. This International Conference will have a strong emphasis on how the scientific and medical research community can interact with community health organizations/workers to inform the design and implementation of community intervention programs, the integration of behavioral health care in primary health clinics to address global cancer health disparities in health care utilization, as well as the study of cancer associated-etiological factors in underserved minority populations. The potential impact of this conference will be multi fold: 1) a global platform for the participation of basic scientists, clinicians, and community health workers (including third-world countries), 2) foster global crosstalk between academia, research, and clinics to encourage multimodal collaborations and vital community engagement, and 3) understand local & global cancer health disparity issues including US-Mexico border areas.
(3 sentences) This R13 application requests support for the UTRGV School of Medicine?s 4th Annual Research Symposium entitled ?International Conference on Cancer Health Disparities (ICCHD-2020),? to be held from September 11- 12, 2020, the first of its kind in the region to increase knowledge of US-Mexico border health disparities among a diverse group of medical students and future biomedical scientists. UTRGV SOM, the second largest Hispanic- serving institution in the nation, serves as an educational, clinical, and research facility for underserved communities along the Texas-Mexico border. The International Conference creates an opportunity for continued medical education for academic, community, and health professionals in the region, and in an expanded form will also help to build community capacity for global minority health and health disparities researchers and advocates focusing specifically on health issues that affect along the US-Mexico border.
