About the Center for Health Disparities
Mission and Vision
The Uniformed Services University's (USU) Center for Health Disparities was established in 2002 in partnership with the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES). USU is a federal medical school training physicians for the military and civilians to conduct research in the basic and behavioral sciences. UMES is a historically Black university on the Eastern shore of Maryland. Together, our long-term goal is to reduce health disparities among racial and ethnic minorities through research, education, and training.
Major research projects target stress responses, metabolic functioning, and cardiovascular fitness of overweight and obese African Americans. Through these projects we seek to provide lifestyle modification and educational approaches designed to eliminate or greatly reduce health disparities. These projects will also increase our understanding of why different racial and ethnic groups are at greater risk for obesity than Caucasians, which may impact treatment guidelines for cardiovascular and metabolic disorders. Additionally, our location at the USU makes us particularly well suited to address health disparities in the military.
Our training and education programs target students across the "educational continuum" from high school to practicing physicians and scientists. Our long-term goal is to increase the number of scientists and health-care providers who recognize and strive to eliminate health disparities. Our developing model of cultural competency training and disease management allows us to provide focused training to health care professionals in the military system.
Core Areas
Research
At Uniformed Services University, we have two active laboratories. Both laboratories research various aspects of obesity in minority groups, in particular, African-Americans. These crucial research programs are intended to help civilians and the military to combat obesity from a physiological and psychological standpoint.
Education and Training
Here at Uniformed Services University, we educate and train our leading military medical students with crucial cultural competency skills. Training will reduce healthcare disparities by providing practitioners skills to sensitively navigate within and between culturally diverse populations.
Our university also offers summer programs with research opportunities, that are made available to high school, college, and graduate students who are members of minority groups. Providing similar training to minority population students interested in careers in healthcare and/or biomedical sciences will provide heightened awareness and skills that will further reduce health disparities.
