Health Disparity

A gene variant that lowers white blood cell levels and is common in individuals with African ancestry contributes to unnecessary bone marrow biopsies, according to a study published June 28 in JAMA Internal Medicine.  The findings, led by investigators at VUMC, are an example of how using genetic data could reduce a health disparity.  Read More

Racial disparities in hypertension risk are due in part to genetic differences between ancestries, Vanderbilt investigators find in a study of participants in the Million Veteran Program. Read More

Research by Vanderbilt history professor Arleen Tuchman on the cultural history of diabetes offers important lessons for other public health challenges, including COVID-19. Read More

More than 600 attendees from across the Southeast participated in a June 24 webinar on COVID-19 health disparities hosted by Vanderbilt and presented by the chief diversity officers of universities in the Southeastern Conference. Read More

Chief diversity officers from across the Southeastern Conference will offer a webinar on Wednesday, June 24, exploring the intersection of race and the COVID-19 health crisis. The Vanderbilt-hosted webinar is free and open to the public. Read More

Neighborhood determinants – represented by census tract data – contribute to the risk of influenza hospitalization and could be used to guide interventions such as vaccinations to high-risk areas. Read More

Vanderbilt investigators have conducted a first-of-its-kind genome-wide association study of lung cancer survival in African-Americans. Read More

Higher genomic levels of African ancestry are associated with an increased risk for Alzheimer’s disease, a consortium of investigators reported recently in Alzheimer’s & Dementia. Read More

Vanderbilt researchers have found that selenium deficiency may contribute to the racial disparity in lung cancer incidence. Read More

Unique molecular "fingerprints" could explain the disparity in Wilms tumor incidence and point to novel, race-specific therapeutic targets. Read More

Vanderbilt researcher Jonathan Metzl has coined the term "structural competency" as a starting point for doctors to realize how medical problems are often downstream results of upstream societal decisions. Read More