News Summary

• The U of M  has been awarded a $4.1 million, 5-year grant by the National Cancer Institute.
• The grant will help establish the regionally-focused Minnesota Community Networks Center for Eliminating Cancer Disparities, designed to address the cancer burden in racial/ethnic minorities and other underserved communities with an initial focus on Minnesota’s growing immigrant and refugee populations.
• Researchers have long known that barriers to health care access exist within Minnesota’s minority populations, but proven methods to overcome those barriers have never been fully identified.

Quotes

“While overall, Minnesotans enjoy a high quality of life and a stable status of health care, not all Minnesota citizens benefit equally. This award recognizes the expertise of both University researchers and our community partners in addressing health disparities. The grant creates a unique opportunity to use community-based participatory methods to reduce the disproportionate burden of cancer and other health disparities in the region,” said Kolawole Okuyemi, M.D., M.P.H., director of the Medical School's Program in Health Disparities Research, and associate professor in the Department of Family Medicine.

Full Text

MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL, Minn. (November 3, 2010) – The University of Minnesota Academic Health Center has been awarded a $4.1 million, 5-year grant by the National Cancer Institute.

The grant will help establish the regionally-focused Minnesota Community Networks Center for Eliminating Cancer Disparities, designed to address the cancer burden in racial/ethnic minorities and other underserved communities with an initial focus on Minnesota’s growing immigrant and refugee populations.

Researchers have long known that barriers to health care access exist within Minnesota’s minority populations. However, proven methods to overcome those barriers have never been fully identified, leading to continued health disparities among Minnesota’s racial/ethnic minority populations.

The new Center for which the grant was awarded will combat disparities through four core areas of focus:

• An administrative core providing leadership and organizational infrastructure for the Center, including strategy, technical support, and public relations.
• A community outreach core fostering collaboration with established community partners New Americans Community Services (African Immigrants) and Centro Campesino (Latino Immigrants). This core will increase community awareness and access to cervical and breast cancer screening.
• A research core will support research examining intervention strategies to limit tobacco use in Latino youth and on eliminating barriers in cervical cancer screening in Somali women.
• A training core will train scientists, health professionals, and community members across the state in incorporating community-based participatory research into their research program and enhance their capacity for designing and implementing programs to eliminate health disparities.

The new Center's director and principal investigator, Kolawole Okuyemi, M.D., M.P.H., is director of the Medical School's Program in Health Disparities Research, and associate professor in the Department of Family Medicine.

“While overall, Minnesotans enjoy a high quality of life and a stable status of health care, not all Minnesota citizens benefit equally,” Okuyemi said. “This award recognizes the expertise of both University researchers and our community partners in addressing health disparities. The grant creates a unique opportunity to use community-based participatory methods to reduce the disproportionate burden of cancer and other health disparities in the region.”

For more information about the University of Minnesota Medical School's Program in Health Disparities Research, visit www.healthdisparities.umn.edu.