The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences has received an $18.9 million federal grant that will help establish a center to reduce cancer and cardiovascular disease in rural areas and African American communities.
The award from the National Institutes of Health will support the new Center for Research, Health and Social Justice, one of 11 such funded centers in the U.S., UAMS announced Monday. The center will work to advance the science of chronic disease health disparities and improve outcomes for those affected. It will also facilitate research and training opportunities to develop interventions, and support academic-community partnerships to address the root of the disparities.
“This award provides us a great opportunity to transform our own institution as well as others to improve health through training and diversifying the research workforce,” said Brian Gittens, vice chancellor for the UAMS Division for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. “Social justice approaches go beyond changing chronic disease risk factors and requires that we create a model research ecosystem, social and structural conditions, and community infrastructures that support the ability to eliminate cancer and cardiovascular disease disparities.”
UAMS College of Public Health Dean Dr. Mark Williams said in a news release that the center will be a “tremendous catalyst for accomplishing our institutional goal of improving health and health care for all Arkansans.”
It will also help the UAMS Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute’s goal to become designated as a National Cancer Institute. Institute Director Dr. Michael Birrer said the center will expand efforts to address major risk factors for cancer: tobacco use, obesity and nutrition issues, and alcohol use.
“Arkansas communities are hit disproportionately by cancer compared to other states and the nation,” Birrer said in the release. “We now have an opportunity to address cancer risk and social determinants of cancer risk factors.”
The new center already has 50 partners, including community and health groups, the state Department of Health and Department of Education, the Coalition for a Tobacco Free Arkansas, and school districts and municipalities. Other key partners are Virginia Commonwealth University and Eastern Carolina University.
Dr. Pebbles Fagan, a professor and director of the Center for the Study of Tobacco, said the partnerships will help shape conversations and collective actions toward eliminating health disparities.
“Race and place-based health disparities are long-standing, and the solutions require multilevel approaches that integrate solutions across disciplines, sectors and organizations,” Fagan said.
UAMS has been studying health disparities through the Arkansas Center for Health Disparities since 2007. The five-year award, which is one of the largest UAMS has received, will take those efforts to a higher level, said Dr. Carol Cornell, a professor and chair of the Department of Health Behavior and Health Education.
“Perhaps most importantly,” she said, “the focus on social justice in every aspect of the new Center and coordination with other centers across the country will accelerate progress toward our ultimate goal of eliminating health disparities.”
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