Stephen Thomas

"Racial and ethnic disparities in health have been staring us right in the face since the beginning of health data collection," he said. However, he sees hope in grassroots approaches that build partnerships between public health and groups within minority communities.

Just two years ago, the Institute of Medicine issued a report that documented significant health disparities between whites and minority groups in the U.S.–even when factors such as insurance coverage, education, disease status, and income levels were similar.

Working at the community level may help to eliminate unequal treatment, said Thomas, director of the Center for Minority Health, part of the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health.

The center has organized a number of successful local health campaigns. Three years ago, the center joined forces with the Pittsburgh Public School Board of Education to create the Greater Pittsburgh Measles Immunization Task Force. The task force mobilized medical teams throughout the community–at schools, grocery stores, and civic organizations. In less than a month, the Booster-Booster Campaign immunized more than 10,000 children for measles, bringing them into compliance with state regulations and sparing them suspension from school for not having the shots.

The task force was co-chaired by University of Pittsburgh Chancellor Mark Nordenberg and Public School Superintendent John Thompson, two of the city’s education leaders.

"The message is this: Institutional commitment is critical, not just in words but in deeds," said Thomas. "But when you say that you want the community to be a partner, you better be ready to respond to what they see as priorities."

That might mean spreading public health messages in nontraditional settings, such as at churches, community sports clubs, or public housing. In some urban African-American communities, for example, barber shops and beauty salons also serve as social meeting places–something that public health professionals may not recognize if they do not spend time in the communities they aim to serve, he said.

Thomas said that he does not agree with recent policymaking discussions on local, state, and federal levels to eliminate racial categories when collecting and reporting data. That information can be used to improve health care and eliminate health disparities, he asserted.

"We will continue to count race, so long as race counts," Thomas said.

The Alonzo Smythe Yerby Award is named after a lifelong advocate of improving health care for the poor and the first African American to chair a department at HSPH. Yerby headed what is now the Department of Health Policy and Management. The lecture was co-sponsored by the Massachusetts Public Health Association and the Division of Public Health Practice at HSPH.

--PHC