Media Advisory: Persistent health disparities are focus of UB Mini Medical School

BUFFALO, N.Y. — In 2019, Erie County ranked among the worst of New York’s of 62 counties for health outcomes, according to County Health Rankings. The number doesn’t tell the full story, as some areas Erie County fare far worse than others.

“Neighbors living in several ZIP codes in downtown Buffalo have health care outcomes that are markedly poorer than those living in other ZIP codes where income and opportunities are greater,” said Roseanne Berger, MD, senior associate dean for graduate medical education and professor of family medicine in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo.

Those yawning disparities—and how to address them—are the subject of the next session of UB’s Mini Medical School to be held from 6-8 p.m. on Tuesday, May 21, in the M&T Bank Auditorium, second floor, Jacobs School, 955 Main St., Buffalo.

The cost is $10; students and medical residents with proper ID can attend for free.

Register at https://securelb.imodules.com/s/1703/alumni/index.aspx?sid=1703&gid=2&pgid=2266&cid=4332,

The panel discussion will focus on how the community and UB’s partners can address health care disparities through education, research and clinical care.

Panelists include:

• Pastor Kinzer Pointer, Promiseland Missionary Baptist Church.
• Linda Pessar, MD, director, Center for Medical Humanities and professor of clinical psychiatry emerita, Jacobs School.
• Teresa Quattrin, MD, UB Distinguished Professor and senior associate dean for research integration.
• Laurene Tumiel-Berhalter, PhD, director of community translational research, UB Clinical and Translational Science Institute.
• Danise C. Wilson, executive director, Area Health Education Centers, Inc.

It is the third session to focus on disparities. The first focused on the distinction between health care equality—providing the same service to everyone—as opposed to health care equity, which is tailoring the right service to the characteristics of the population. The second session focused on the role of unconscious bias in health care and how to recognize and address it; and disparities facing African American and Native American populations.   

UB’s Mini-Medical School is a public service education initiative of the Jacobs School, as well as UB’s Schools of Dental Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Public Health and Health Professions.