Monday, October 29, 2007

Racism May Affect Infant Mortality Rates

Racism May Affect Infant Mortality Rates
by Halimah Abdullah


WASHINGTON - For decades, health experts have tried to determine why African-American babies are twice as likely to die as white infants. A new series of studies from the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies’ Health Policy Institute, along with a small but growing number of neonatalogists nationwide, suggests that the stressful effects of racism play a role.

more...

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/09/29/4203

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Upcoming Diversity Healthcare Events of Interest

Cook Ross Web Seminar Series, Cultural Competency in Healthcare
Making the Case for Cultural Competency in Healthcare
January 9, 2008
Location: Web Seminar
Transform your healthcare organization by practicing daily cultural competence while improving patient satisfaction and bottom-line results. Module I of Cook Ross series.
http://cookross.com/docs/free_jan_2008_HC.pdf or visit http://www.cookross.com/

American Association for Cancer Research
The Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved
November 27 - December 1, 2007
Location: Atlanta, GA
http://www.aacr.org/home/scientists/meetings--workshops/cancer-health-disparities.aspx

Diversity in Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology

According to Universum Communications and THE BLACK COLLEGIAN’s report “The Top 100 Diversity Employers 2006” healthcare surpasses financial services as the most popular industry among diverse students overall. Healthcare was also determined to be the top industry among undergraduate students.

Undergraduates listed top pharmaceutical companies including Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Mayo Clinic, Glaxo Smith Kline and Merck in the top 40 desired companies. Pharma companies that were on the top 100 list in previous years have moved up in preference. Wyeth Pharmaceuticals rose in undergrad preference from 186th to 64th, Eli Lilly from 95th to 80th, Novartis from 140th to 130th and Roche from 154th to 140th. Even newcomers that were not ranked the previous year such as Hospira, Bayer and Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America made it in the top 200 list.

So what is causing diverse students to migrate towards the healthcare industry and hold a better opinion of pharma companies as potential employers?

These are conditions explored in a recently posted feature article on the Healthcare Channel, Diverse Talent Recognizes Pharma’s Efforts to Create More Diverse Workforce. This guest contribution presents the insider's perspective of Kristin Rand, JD, Director of Education Strategy in the Professional Education Support Department for Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. Her exploration, focusing particularly but not exlcusively on the representation of women in the industry, thoughtfully examines the benefits of diversity to industry organizations -- both to the customers and to the organizations. It also examines how smaller, more nimble companies in the biotechnology sector are succeeding in raising the representation of women in their ranks, and how Big Pharma -- despite its strides -- can still learn a thing or two from these companies.

The feature appears on both the Healthcare Industry Careers Channel and the Pharmaceutical Industry Channel at IMDiversity.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Abbott Named One of the Best Companies for Hispanics by Hispanic Business Magazine

Abbott Named One of the Best Companies for Hispanics by Hispanic Business Magazine

We will highlight things such as this regularly on our blog where healthcare and health-related topics are concerned. Abbott has been pretty active in their diversity efforts for quite some time. From what I understand they are moving towards more cultural awareness and cultural competency-related work to better service their customers in sales interactions. In fact, many pharmaceutical companies are engaged in these efforts now.

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Racism May Affect Infant Mortality Rates


Saturday, September 29, 2007 by McClatchy Newspapers

Racism May Affect Infant Mortality Rates by Halimah Abdullah

WASHINGTON - For decades, health experts have tried to determine why African-American babies are twice as likely to die as white infants.
A new series of studies from the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies’ Health Policy Institute, along with a small but growing number of neonatalogists nationwide, suggests that the stressful effects of racism play a role.

more...
(http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/09/29/4203/)

Monday, October 1, 2007

Healthcare, Cultural Competency, Diversity Live Here. . .

Greetings All,

Welcome to our new Blog. Diversity HealthWorks has created this blog to share relevant health care information and editorials to you on a regular basis. Our intention is to create a space that allows you as a healthcare professional, consumer, or advocate to gather and share information about healthcare, cultural issues affecting healthcare, and the myriad diversity-related issues that impact our health that we are aware of and those we are not.

The fact is, all of us are aware of something. Given this fact, PLEASE SHARE what you know. We welcome you and if you are blogosphere or someone that is not and has something to say, please pass it along and we will do the same.

Stay tuned for what we are hoping is the #1 blog focused on the opportunities, challenges, and overall elevation of the diversity/inclusion and cultural competency conversation in healthcare.