StemCell Therapy

Like so many people across the United States and around the world, my colleagues and I at Celmatix feel deeply outraged by the brutal and senseless murders of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and George Floyd. We stand in solidarity with the millions of people lifting their voices in protest and also join countless more in reflecting on what we can do to make this a turning point for racial inequality.

Inequality comes in many forms for People of Color, both here and abroad, but race-related health disparities are among the starkest and most resistant to progress. Being a Black female further amplifies these inequities, which is particularly troubling and ironic given the fact that Women of Color make up the majority of healthcare workers. Over the last few months, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought this unfortunate reality into even more clear focus.

An often-cited quote in the business world is you cant manage what you cant measure. At Celmatix, we have been working for over a decade to address critical gaps in data collection for womens health. This has included thinking outside of the bubble of traditional research metropolises like Boston and San Francisco, and expanding our research partnerships to reproductive health centers of excellence across the US and to biological repositories that allow us to reach women at community health centers and urban hospitals which serve women who may not have access to reproductive specialist care. In addition to investing in diversified data for our scientific and clinical research studies, weve also made significant investments in our Next Gen Womens Project, an ambitious two-year consumer research effort that interviewed or surveyed more than 4K millennial women to understand how their healthcare needs differ from earlier generations of women and to discern their attitudes concerning their reproductive health and fertility. As part of this research, we had the privilege of collaborating withthe Black Womens Health Imperative, Womens Health Magazine, and Oprah Magazineto better understand why Black women are facing higher infertility rates, greater stigma around reproductive challenges, and larger barriers to accessing fertility care.

Taken together, the picture is clear: the disparities we see in womens health funding, research, delivery, innovation, data collection, and outcomes are consistently amplifiedmultifoldfor women of color.As we reflect on policy changes that could have an outsized impact on addressing centuries of racial inequality in the US, we can think of no better place to start than with improving the health of black women.

Black Womens Health ImperativeThe countrys first nonprofit organization created by Black women to help protect and advance the health and wellness of Black women and girls

Black Mamas Matter AllianceThe alliance helps advocate for better legislation to reduce black maternal mortality, highlights necessary areas of research and spreads information about the social determinants of health that influence outcomes like traumatic birth or maternal and infant mortality.

Sister SongSisterSong is a Southern-based, national membership organization; its purpose is to build an effective network of individuals and organizations to improve institutional policies and systems that impact the reproductive lives of marginalized communities

Fertility for Colored GirlsProvides services for underserved Black women and couples. This includes educational programming about treatment options, resources to connect with counselors, financial grants, and monthly support group meetings hosted by seven different chapters across the country,

Linda Villarosa:Journalist

Patrice Peck:Journalist

Laurie Zephyrin, MD:Obgyn, VP Health Care Delivery System Reform at Commonwealth Fund

Reproductive Injustice: Racism, Pregnancy, and Preterm Birth.Davis DA.NY: NYU Press:

Black Lives Matter: Claiming a Space for Evidence-Based Outrage in Obstetrics and Gynecology.Eichelberger KY, Doll K, Ekpo GE, Zerden ML. Am J Public Health. 2016 Oct;106(10):17712. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2016.303313.

Key Facts on Health and Health Care by Race and Ethnicity,Samantha Artiga and Kendal Orgera. KFF, Published: Nov 12, 2019

When Maternity Wards in Black Neighborhoods Disappear:NYT, Kelly Glass, May 4, 2020

A Preventable Cancer is on the Rise in Alabama:The New Yorker, Eyal Press, March 30, 2020

This article originally appeared on Celmatix, where Dr.Piraye Yurttas Beim, who is also an EndoFound Board Member, is the founder. If you have additional data to share or organizations you would like us to highlight here, please reach out to atinfo@celmatix.comor info@endofound.org. Please also check back as we plan to expand on this list in the coming weeks. And finally, we urge you to help us raise awareness about this important issue by sharing this in your networks.

See the original post here:
The Disparities In Healthcare For Black Women | EndoFound - Endometriosis Foundation of America - The Blossom

This entry was posted on June 6, 2020 at 8:48 pm and is filed under Personalized Medicine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed. |