Hampton University?s First Annual Caribbean Health Conference ? Addressing Inequities One Step at a Time will seek to address the large health inequities that exist within Caribbean populations residing in Caribbean Nations and U.S. territories. Surprisingly, few studies have examined the effect of social factors such as age, gender, socioeconomic status, geographic location or place of residence/birth on differential disease patterns, disease prevalence and mortality among the various populations. Complicating matters further, Caribbean populations are admixed with varying degrees of genetic influences from African, European, Asian Indian and Asian Chinese genetic ancestral lineages; thereby making it difficult to treat Caribbean- Americans, Caribbean residents and new immigrants as a homogenous population.
The Specific Aims of the conference are:
Aim 1 : Disseminate culturally specific evidence-based strategies that will maximize community outreach activities and promote health awareness among Caribbean nations, and Caribbean-American subpopulations;
Aim 2 : Connect key stakeholders from the Caribbean community with healthcare professionals, healthcare systems, and genomic scientists in the U.S. to accelerate collaborations and communications related to improving health and treatment outcomes of Caribbean nations and Caribbean- American subpopulations;
Aim 3 : Facilitate the development of genomic clinical studies, admixture mapping, and genotype-stratified trials that are more inclusive of Caribbean nations and Caribbean-American subpopulations;
and Aim 4 : Promote workforce diversity in health disparities research by providing a pre- conference Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) workshop for scientists, health professionals and under-represented students interested in working with Caribbean nations and Caribbean-American subpopulations to address health inequities. The conference will foster a dynamic environment that will lead to the creation of transdisciplinary networks consisting of domestic and international Caribbean community advocates, genomic scientists, epidemiologists and health professionals who will work closely to pioneer strategies for 1) improving health education among Caribbean nations, U.S. territories and Americans of Caribbean descent, 2) implementing evidenced based interventions and 3) using genome-guided therapeutic approaches to address disease prevention and treatment outcomes in Caribbean- American subpopulations. The supporting plenary sessions and activities are designed to disseminate best practices in community engagement, to discuss potential disease biomarkers associated with this population, to explore the benefits of use of precision medicine and to prepare the next generation of biomedical investigators who engage in translational and community-based participatory research.
Hampton University is proposing a conference titled ?Hampton University?s First Annual Caribbean Health Conference ? Addressing Inequities One Step at a Time? with the short-term overarching goals to promote collaborations, research, and discovery in the investigation of the biological, ancestral, environmental and psychosocial determinants which impact health outcomes in the Caribbean region and within its various Afro-origin subpopulations as it relates to cancer, diabetes, heart disease, stroke and HIV. This goal is borne out of the observation that the causes of health inequities in Caribbean-American subpopulations have been understudied and, thus, there is limited information regarding disease etiology, pathogenesis and effectiveness of therapeutic management. We hypothesize that the networks and infrastructure built, as well as the information gathered at this conference will provide a framework for Caribbean health disparities and equity research at Hampton University and beyond.
