The United States (U.S.) has one of the largest income-based health disparities in the world with poor people, in the U.S, more likely than wealthy people not to have access to care because of cost, and more likely to report being dissatisfied with their last visit to the doctor. Moreover, many minority populations (e.g., African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans) suffer co-morbidities including, but not limited to, asthma, diabetes, and heart disease. Addressing health disparities is significant not only from a social justice standpoint, but also for improving the health of all Americans by achieving improvements in overall quality of care and population health. Moreover, health disparities amount to approximately $93 billion in excess medical care costs and $42 billion in lost productivity per year as well as economic losses due to premature deaths. To address health disparities, Historical Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU)s have potential to deliver a measurably effective intervention to develop sustainable biomedical & information technology related inventions that create intellectual property (i.e., copyright, patents, and trade-secret) for HBCUs around which students and faculty may develop products and services to generate technology transfer license revenue for HBCUs and continue developing solutions to eradicate U.S. health disparities. However, funding innovations is continuously a challenge. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant programs, like the Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program, provide opportunities for HBCUs to collaborate with small business (SB) to develop innovations that address health disparities. This program awarded three-quarters of a billion dollars in 2015 to help business translate biomedical discoveries into products. However, for minority African- American businesses, the SBIR program award funding was 0.7%; 1.7% for Hispanic-owned businesses; and 0% to Native American. To address the aforementioned problems, Juxtopia and its team will organize the 1st Annual HBCU Eradicate Economic and Health Disparities (HEEHD) 2019 Conference. The HEEHD 2019 conference will invite peer reviewed empirical research, from HBCUs focused on techniques & methods that effectively facilitate innovative research and development; technology transfer; and resulting product/service commercialization to address health disparities in minority populations. To accomplish this NIH R13 effort, the Juxtopia team will accomplish the following three specific aims: A. Analyze Barriers preventing HBCUs from securing significant funding awards or translating research. B. Facilitate Scientific Discussion to devise effective methods for improving Biomedical Research. C. Facilitate Policy Discussions w/ federal & state governments, industry, & organizations on how HBCUs can effectively apply their HEEHD training to address health disparities.
The proposed 1st HBCU Eradicating Economic and Health Disparities (HEEHD) 2019 conference will address economic and health disparities. The HEEHD 2019 will organize faculty and students, from HBCUs, to submit and present peer reviewed empirical research that focus on techniques & methods that effectively facilitate innovative research and development (R&D); technology transfer; and resulting product/service commercialization to address health disparities in minority populations.
