Promoting heart health: an HBCU collaboration with the Living Heart Foundation and the National Football League Retired Players Association.

INTRODUCTION: Cardiovascular disease continues to be the leading cause of death in the United States and African Americans are disproportionately affected. Cardiovascular disease risk factors such as obesity, hypertension, family history of heart disease, and physical inactivity are often higher in African American young adults. The aim of the current study was to assess cardiovascular disease risk factors at a historically black college and university (HBCU) in North Carolina. METHODS: A collaborative partnership was established that included Living Heart Foundation, the NFL Retired Players Association and a HBCU. Ninety-one students (77 females and 14 males) aged 18 to 55 years (mean, 24 y, SD = 9 y) were recruited via dissemination of flyers, brochures, mass e-mailing, and announcements. Demographic and medical history data were collected. Stata version 10.1 was used for all analyses. RESULTS: Fifty-three percent of the participants reported having experienced a chronic health condition, 32% were overweight (body mass index [BMI], 25-29.9 kg/m2) and 31% obese (BMI > or = 30 kg/m2). Five percent of females and 23% of males had high-density lipoprotein cholesterol of 40 mg/dL or less, indicative of a risk for developing heart disease. CONCLUSION: There is an urgent need to intervene among African American college students and address behavioral risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Such interventions may have a major impact on their overall and future health outcomes. Strategies to be employed need to focus on the integration of culturally appropriate healthy lifestyle programs into the curriculum and university health centers. Consultations with stakeholders for ideas and resources should be encouraged.

There is no scientific rationale for race-based research.

For centuries, the colonial governments used a combination of race and ethnic characteristics to subjugate and control people of color, and scientists of the day provided evidence of the "natural order of things" to support national policies of domination, segregation and control. There have been many examples of events in the past 70 years to suggest that achievements by ethnic peoples are not genetically determined and that race and ethnicity are merely terms to describe external features, language, culture, social mores and folklore. BiDil was the first drug in this country approved by the FDA for use in a single "race" after a clinical trial that enrolled only members of that race. Thus arose the question of the efficacy of doing race-based research in humans. In order for this kind of research to have any scientific basis, each individually defined or self-declared race would have to have a 100% pure gene pool, and the data show that the gene pool among whites, blacks and Hispanics in America is very heterogeneous. This makes for far greater similarities among U.S. citizens than any perceived differences, and genomic science has failed to support the concept of racial categories in medicine. Scientists involved with the first mapping of the human genome have noted that there is no basis in the genetic code for race. That being the case, there appears to be no justification for race-based research among human beings.

Charity Hospital: from the beginning to either a new beginning or the end.

Through epidemics, wars, hurricanes, pirates and politics, Charity Hospital has served the indigent population of New Orleans and Louisiana since May 10, 1736 as the second oldest continuing public hospital in the country following Bellevue in New York City, which opened six weeks earlier on March 31, 1736. The first Charity facility was financed by the estate of boat builder Jean Louis, whose will recorded, "a sale shall be made of all that remains, which, together with my small lot, I bequeath to serve in perpetuity to the founding of a hospital for the sick of the City of New Orleans...".

Did Flexner's Report condemn black medical schools? Not so, in my opinion.

I invited Kathryn L. Moseley, MD to write the editorial appearing on the pages before this one as to whether she thought that the original Flexner Report was unduly harsh on the existing black medical schools. I invited her to choose whether she wanted to write the "pro" or "con" editorial, and that I would write the opposite piece for the sake of a presentation-although I might not necessarily believe in the position on which I was to write. She elected to write the "yes, it was harmful" piece, and I had to assume the editor's burden. In fact, as I began doing my internal soul searching for answers, I began to believe that the original Flexner Report actually helped preserve two black schools--Howard and Meharry--both of which might well have closed along with the other five schools scattered across the southeast, absent Flexner's direct and tangential support.

Mentoring women in academic surgery: overcoming institutional barriers to success.

Women now comprise 50% of Caucasian matriculants to medical school; 66.6% of African Americans, 48% of Hispanics and 51.3% of Asians beginning medical school are also women. This trend is likely to continue since women now earn 57% of all undergraduate degrees, and they earn more degrees in the health professions and biological sciences than men. Black and Hispanic women now earn 66% and 60% of bachelor's degrees in their respective ethnic groups. Overall, women are concentrated at the lowest faculty ranks at medical schools, with 70% holding the rank of instructor or assistant professor. Women continue to experience difficulty with recruitment, retention, promotion and pay issues compared to men. They also experience additional gender-specific issues, including primary responsibility for rearing families and quality-of-life issues in some specialties, including most of the surgical disciplines. Clearly, there is an evolving population shift at work here; the pool of candidates for medical school faculty positions is likely to be evenly split between men and women for Caucasians, Hispanics and Asians, while the African-American pool is likely heavily weighted in favor of the women. Women are beginning to garner more Latin honors recognition at graduation as well and the definition of the "best and the brightest" is being redefined. Therefore, institutions must continue to identify the barriers that deter women from entering surgery, to develop research tools to understand how to improve the process of developing leadership skills among women and to insure a "buy-in" of their male counterparts when components of the plan are being implemented.