Volume 3: January 2006 Edition In this volume: 1st Minority Health Knowledge Award Honoree, Thomas A. LaVeist, PhD The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Minority Health awarded the first annual Minority Health Knowledge Award to the director of the Hopkins Center for Health Disparities Solutions, Dr. Thomas LaVeist. The award was presented at the National Leadership Summit on Eliminating Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health on January 10, 2006 in Washington, D.C. The award was designed to acknowledge individuals who contribute substantial research, as well as written and published work, that advances knowledge about minority health and the elimination of health disparities. These efforts must also have led to or inspired others to contribute to the body of knowledge needed to close the minority health gap. Dr. Thomas LaVeist is a professor in the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Department of Health Policy and Management and teaches courses that focus on minority health and health disparities. His research focuses on social and behavioral factors that predict the occurrence of various health-related outcomes; social and behavioral factors that explain race differences in health outcomes; and the impact of social policy on the health and quality of life of African Americans. His work has lead him to act as a consultant to policy-makers regarding health disparities and to develop policy and interventions to address race disparities in health-related outcomes. He authored over 30 articles in the last five years alone, and in 2005 published the first textbook on minority health and health disparities, entitled Minority Populations and Health: An Introduction to Health Disparities in the United States. Return to Top>> Community Partnerships: Operation Reach Out Southwest Operation Out Reach South West (OROSW) began in 1997 as a committee of community leaders interested in improving the quality of life in Southwest Baltimore. Since then, OROSW has grown into a resident-led, grassroots organization consisting of a coalition of residents, churches, businesses, non-profit organizations, and other stakeholders from 13 neighborhoods. To date, they have identified the most pressing problems in their community and are developing workable solutions to address these problems. Consequently, OROSW developed a 20-year plan that focuses on improving six major problem areas, including economic development, education, health, physical planning, public safety, and youth and seniors, through a series of projects that build off the assets and strengths of the community. This plan also addresses ways to develop the whole person, as well as the physical environment and is designed to help people who live, work, and worship in the community benefit from the projects. Joyce Smith, the Director of OROSW, will represent OROSW and act as a community outreach advisor for the Center. OROSW was instrumental in guiding and monitoring the implementation and progress of the Exploring Health Disparities in Integrated Communities (EHDIC) Study. Following completion of the study, a series of meetings have been held with the coalition to share findings, solicit their feedback on the most pressing problems in the community, and begin formulating workable solutions to address these problems. In conjunction with OROSW members, the Southwest Baltimore Community Health Report highlighting the study’s findings was prepared for participating community residents. This unique report informed the community residents of the basic results of the EHDIC-SWB study and was a valued resource for health education regarding healthcare resources available to the residents. The report was mailed to every address in the study area regardless of whether or not anyone from the household participated in the study. Return to Top>> Certificates in Health Disparities and Health Inequality Recipients Congratulations goes to the 2004-2005 Health Disparities and Health Inequality Certificate recipients: Ayanna Adams Phyra McCandless Michelle Clark Beatriz Tapia Angela Echiverri Evelyn Tu Return to Top>> "Beyond Legacy: The Tuskeegee Syphilis Study" Morgan State University and the Phoebe R. Berman Bioethics Institute at Johns Hopkins University sponsored Beyond Legacy, a series of programs and events that examined the Tuskegee Syphilis Study from historical, contemporary, and ethical perspectives. The symposium was designed to reach beyond the legacy of the Tuskegee Study in order to advance dialogue on public health solutions to reduce health disparities. The multimedia program used art and drama as an important backdrop for community discourse on the contemporary meaning and relevance of this infamous period. The series began with an opening night reception for The Greater Good, an exhibit by artist Tony Hooker. Following the reception was the presentation of Miss Evers’ Boys, a play set in during the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. To conclude the events, Dr. Vanessa Northington Gamble, Director of the Tuskegee University National Center for Bioethics in Research and Health Care, acted as the keynote speaker. "The Greater Good: An Artist’s Contemporary View of the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment" The exhibition included over 30 large-scale photographs that were a combination of historic photographs taken during the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment and Artist Tony Hooker’ own contemporary images. The photographs were presented with quotes from people involved in the experiment, which together, encapsulated the spirit this notorious episode in our history and raised questions about the impact of the Tuskegee Experiment on the present and future. "Miss Evers’ Boys"
David Feldshuh's Miss Evers' Boys explored the social and ethical issues at the heart of the infamous Tuskegee Study of Untreated Blacks With Syphilis by giving a fictional account of the 40-year governmental study. This warm, moving, surprisingly humorous play was set during the time in America when syphilis was reaching epidemic proportions in many areas of the country.  |
From 1932 through 1972, the U.S. Public Health Service studied a group of poor African-American sharecroppers in Macon County , Alabama, 399 of whom were chronic syphilitics and a 201 of whom were presumably unaffected, to determine the affects of untreated syphilis. During this egregious experiment, doctors hid the true nature of their research and treated the men with placebos. Once penicillin became the highly efficacious treatment standard during the 1940s, these men were denied proper treatment. It was not until the early 1970s that a public outcry developed when all but 127 of the original study group had died. Return to Top>> | 
