Presentation at the National Medical Association Conference in Orlando, FL.

Well, I just returned back from the National Medical Association Conference in Orlando, Florida where I talked about the new program that I developed entitled, "Developing a Graduate Certificate Online Program in Ethnic and Rural Health Disparities." The audience of primarily physicians, public health researchers and health administrators asked several questions regarding the program and I enjoyed the dialogue with the audience. It was a long morning and afternoon session of experts across the country presenting their clinical and basic science studies to the audience.

Not only did I verbally presented the ERDH program to the NMA conference attendees, I also presented a poster presentation. Several of my colleagues in this session were pleased that we were able to get the extra time to set-up our posters during the same day of our oral presentation.

Overall, the National Medical Association conference is a superb national conference which allows primarily physicians/medical professionals of color to come together and discuss their clinical practices and research. I have attended the NMA conference before and it gets bigger and bigger each year. Yet it does appear that the NMA is attempting to include more professionals from other disciplines other than medicine to become a part of their conference and association. I think that it's time to do it in a major way.

During the opening ceremony, the NMA also honored a number of distinguised physicians from across the country including Dr. Virginia Caine, Dr. Wilbert Jordan, Dr. Michael LeNoir, Dr. John C. Nelson, Dr. Griffin Rodgers, and the new Surgeon General Dr. Regina M. Benjamin. In addition, the First Lady Michelle Obama received a distinguished Scroll of Merit Award.

Finally, I saw a few of my former colleagues from NIH and met new medical professionals in which we had engaging conversations about the new Health Care Reform policy. All in all, Orlando, Florida was an excellent city to host the 2010 National Medical Association Convention and Scientific Assembly.

Now I know that my new Ethnic and Rural Health Disparities (ERHD)Graduate Certificate Online Program and my medical anthropologist's approach to medical care can be the nation's leader in online training the next generation of medical and public health professionals!

CDC Medical College and Universities Roundtable Meeting - Atlanta, GA

A few days ago, I was fortunate to participate in the CDC Medical College and Universities Roundtable Meeting. Asked by the Dean of the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University, I represented our university during this two-day meeting to share ideals on how to increase minority students in the School of Medicine and public health. Representatives from a wide variety of universities and colleges were represented at this meeting which featured Director Thomas Frieden of the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention and Dr. John E. Maupin - President of Morehouse School of Medicine giving the keynote speeches during day two.

Yet this Roundtable meeting was started at the request of Congresswoman Barbara Lee, Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. The meeting purpose and objectives were:

• Identify opportunities related to health disparities elimination, including the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and specific areas for ongoing collaboration and engagement.


• Discuss and determine how best to act on evidence indicating that increasing diversity in the workforce is associated with improvements in key measures of health disparities, identify career development and training opportunities in academic settings and at CDC; and


• Determine ways to increase the current representation of minority professionals in the field of public health and how participating institutions can train students in population health and public health.

Interestingly, once I arrived at the meeting at CDC's new complex, I met a former colleague -- Dr. Karen Bouye who I worked with when I was a PostDoctoral Fellow at CDC from 1993-1995. Then I was attending Emory University and working for CDC in the Office of Minority Health in order to complete my requirement for the Postdoctoral Fellowship in HIV/AIDs. It was a joy to catch up with her and several other colleagues.

The meeting was filled with all types of excellent commentary, suggestions and promotions of what each representative's university is already doing. For example, I mentioned that I had developed a completely unique new Graduate Online Certificate Program entitled the "Ethnic and Rural Health Disparities (ERHD)" (http://blogs.aos.ecu.edu/cer) at East Carolina University beginning in the fall 2010. We need to use our online technology to reach out to various urban and rural communities so that communities of color can have the access and opportunity to obtain additional training and expertise in public health. That's what our new ERHD program will accomplish.

For continual dialogue and discussion regarding the CDC Medical College and Universities Roundtable, you can go to their blog at: http://blogs.cdc.gov/mcuroundtable/

Finally, it felt good returning to CDC and see so many changes at this federal institution and the new buildings being constructed. It seemed like just a few years ago when I brought my family here to relocate and go through the intense training at CDC and Emory University. We truly had an enjoyable time living and working in Atlanta. We met a lot of great and phenomenal people then and we cherrish that time. Interestingly, my older brother lives in Atlanta as well. It was particularly nice to see him again. Time flies by so fast yet still some things stay the same.

Check out the photo: Dr. Thomas Frieden, Dr. John Maupin, Dr. Winston Price, Dr. Janet Collins and Dr. Walter Williams.

How To Solve and Eliminate Health Disparities

On March 31st, 2010, I had the pleasure to give a presentation to the Multicultural Student Nursing Association at East Carolina University. I was invited by the student President -- Jessica Bland and the nursing faculty.

The title of the presentation was, "How to Solve and and Eliminate Health Disparities." Throughout my talk, I highlighted the conference major themes which were:

• How health disparities affects health care delivery.



• What does health disparities mean to health care providers?



• How we as health care providers better serve health disparities populations in eastern North Carolina

Interesting, I had a number of excellent questions from nursing students and faculty who were passionate about health disparities and truly wanted to find new ways in which nursing professionals can be one of the key health care providers to help solve and eliminate health disparities. As I reinterated throughout my talk, nurses have always and continue to be the key health care providers to eliminating health disparities.

I also mentioned to the audience that one of my key mentors who provided me guidance, encouragement and direction throughout my doctoral training at Wayne State University (1983-1988) was the Founder of Transcultural Nursing -- Dr. Madeleine Leininger. I was fortunate to sit in on several of her classes while going through by doctoral program in Anthropolology at WSU. She was also one of my doctoral advisors and I owe much of my perspective about health and medical care to her.

Here is a picture of Multicultual Nursing Student President Jessica Bland and myself.

New - Ethnic & Rural Health Disparities Modules

The month of March begins the official promotion of my brand new online modules entitled, "Ethnic & Rural Health Disparities: ERHD." The ERHD online course modules are designed to help you understand health issues and improve your skills in working with ethnic and rural health disparity populations in eastern North Carolina, the United States and globally. The overall outcome of this program is to assist professionals in developing culturally competent projects, proposals and policies that are designed specifically for ethnic, rural, multicultural, multiracial, international and global communities around the world. Each module runs for 10 hours each. Overall, this program runs for a total of 160 hours, with options for someone interested in taking individual modules of the program or the entire course.

Online ERHD modules are:

1. Ethnic Health and Health Disparities: Understanding the Health Issues in America - 4 units
2. Global Public Health: Understanding the World's Health Problem - 4 units
3. African American Health: Understanding Their Health Issues - 4 units
4. Medical Anthropology: Understanding Health Issues from a Comprehensive Perspective - 4 units

Here is the link directly to the modules:

http://cpeprograms.ecu.edu/ShowSchedule.awp?~~GROUP~HEALTH~Health,+Wellness,+and+Healthcare

or you can go to the Continuing Professional Education website at:

http://www.ecu.edu/cpe/

Finally, if you want to see my YOU TUBE promotion, here it is: ERHD Modules

After review, let me know what you think about my new ERHD modules! They are for EVERYONE!!