Overcoming the Health Care Cancer Disparity Problem

The Black Lives Matter movement, the quest for social justice and the COVID-19 pandemic have collectively exposed many inequities in the nation’s health care system and how they impact poor and minority populations, especially African Americans. In this episode of The James Cancer-Free World, Chasity Washington, director of the OSUCCC – James Center for Cancer Health Equity, explains how racism has combined with explicit and implicit bias throughout history to impact minorities and create health disparities. Washington also describes how several Center for Cancer Health Equity programs—including a mobile mammography unit, a cervical cancer outreach program, and a free yearly colorectal cancer screening program—have helped bring these live-saving screening programs to underserved populations in Columbus and throughout Ohio, and how they can serve as national models. The center will soon launch a mobile lung cancer screening unit to benefit underserved areas.

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