I hope that everyone reading this newsletter, your friends, and your loved ones are well and safe.

This year has been wrought with challenges as COVID-19 has transformed how we live and work. I am privileged to lead a research institution, and to collaborate with others at NIH and externally, to support research that will have a direct impact toward controlling the pandemic.

NIMHD plays a co-lead role in the RADx Underserved Populations (RADx-UP) program that will support over 60 projects across the United States to better understand COVID-19 testing patterns among underserved and vulnerable populations and develop strategies to reduce disparities that have been exacerbated by the pandemic.

We are also co-leading a novel, NIH-wide effort with the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) called the Community Engagement Alliance (CEAL) Against COVID-19 Disparities. Launched in September, CEAL works with communities to address COVID-19 misinformation and promote inclusion in prevention, therapeutic, and vaccine clinical trials for populations disproportionately affected.

On September 28-29, NIMHD hosted the "Role of Work in Health Disparities in the United States" workshop, co-chaired by NIMHD Scientific Program Directors Drs. Rada Dagher and Nancy Jones. Focusing on work as a social determinant of health is an important pathway for building a body of knowledge to facilitate public health interventions to address minority health and health disparities. We were pleased to have a number of experts from multidisciplinary research fields present and participate in the two days.

NIMHD is pleased to welcome Dr. Yujing Liu as Chief of the Scientific Review Branch and congratulate Dr. Tilda Farhat on her promotion to Director of the Office of Science Policy, Planning, Evaluation, and Reporting. We are excited to have these exceptional leaders as part of NIMHD.

I especially want to recognize the sterling contribution of our scientific program director, Dr. Rina Das, a recipient of the 2020 NIH Director’s Award. I applaud her exceptional leadership in promoting scientific innovation in NIMHD’s extramural research programs.

Finally, I would like to thank all NIMHD staff, grantees, and our collaborators for their continued resilience in carrying out the Institute's mandate during this pandemic. I commend you all for your commitment to improving minority health and reducing health disparities. We look forward to 2021 with new and exciting opportunities!

Eliseo J. Pérez-Stable, M.D.
Director, NIMHD

Enter the NIMHD Envisioning Health Equity Art Challenge, the latest activity for our 10-year anniversary celebration! We are hosting a competition for teens and adults to submit original artwork that reflects an America in which all populations have an opportunity to live long, healthy and productive lives.

Entries will be accepted through February 5, 2021. First-, second-, and third-place prizes will be awarded. See the Envisioning Health Equity Art Challenge page for full details.

Studies to focus on women from racial and ethnic minority groups, women with underprivileged socioeconomic status, and those living in underserved rural settings. Read the press release.

NIH has awarded nearly $234 million to improve COVID-19 testing for underserved and vulnerable populations. A part of the Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx) initiative, the RADx Underserved Populations (RADx-UP) program will support 32 institutions across the United States and will focus on populations disproportionately affected by the pandemic. These groups include African Americans, American Indians/Alaskan Natives, Latinos/Latinas, Native Hawaiians, older adults, pregnant women and those who are homeless or incarcerated.

RADx-UP will support projects with established community partnerships that can use their existing research infrastructures to swiftly implement strategies and interventions to increase access and uptake of COVID-19 testing among underserved and vulnerable populations. Read the press release.

NIH is funding community engagement research efforts in areas hardest hit by COVID-19, with a goal of quickly launching outreach efforts that help reduce the impact of COVID-19 on the most vulnerable populations. Learn more about this effort, which is led by NIMHD and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). Read the press release.

The NIH DEBUT Challenge awarded prizes worth $100,000 for the ninth year. The Challenge is supported by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, NIMHD, the NIH Office of AIDS Research, and VentureWell, a nonprofit higher-education network that cultivates revolutionary ideas and promising inventions.

The Healthcare Technologies for Low-Resource Settings Prize of $15,000, awarded by NIMHD, went to the innovative Universal Brachytherapy Applicator, “At Your Cervix,” submitted by Rice University engineering students. This low-cost, 3D-printed device could help expand treatment of late-stage cervical cancer in areas where medical providers do not have the training or expertise to administer brachytherapy (radioactive implants). Watch the video describing this technology.

Learn more about the simple diagnostics and treatments for conditions such as tuberculosis, cervical cancer, birth defects, and onchocerciasis (river blindness) that this year’s DEBUT Challenge teams developed.

On September 16 and 17, NHLBI Director Gary H. Gibbons, M.D., along with leading African American researchers and physicians, participated in a two-part forum to provide the African American community with the facts and expert perspectives regarding the decisions associated with participating in COVID-19 vaccine studies and acceptance of proven safe and efficacious vaccines when available.

This event was sponsored by the Black Coalition Against COVID, a D.C. community-based grassroots initiative, with support from Howard University (HU) and HU WHUR Radio 96.3, Morehouse School of Medicine, the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, Meharry Medical College, the National Medical Association (NMA), the W. Montague Cobb/NMA Health Institute, and the National Urban League. NHLBI and NIMHD collaborated on this event through the CEAL. Watch the event here.

The NIH Federal Asian Pacific American Council hosted a webinar, “United to Fight Health Inequity During the Pandemic—What Can the AAPI [Asian American/Pacific Islander] Community Do?” The webinar brought together leading public health experts from various communities to share their experience and lessons learned in addressing the gaps among underserved and vulnerable communities. NIMHD Deputy Director Monica Webb Hooper, Ph.D., opened the panel discussion, and Yvonne T. Maddox, Ph.D., former acting director of NIMHD, was a panelist. Read the meeting recap in the NIH Record.

Teresa Brockie, Ph.D., MSN, RN, FAAN (A'ananin), is from the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the Center for American Indian Health. Dr. Brockie’s research focuses on achieving health equity through community-based prevention interventions to overcome suicide, trauma, and adverse childhood experiences. She embraces A'aniiih culture and leverages tribal strengths in her work with Native American communities to elevate Indigenous health and abate disparities. Read more.

Lonnie A. Nelson, Ph.D. (Ani Kituwah), is from Washington State University. Dr. Nelson’s research focuses on using a community-based approach to ensure long-term improvements in people’s lives and eliminating health disparities in American Indian and Alaska Native populations in urban areas. His preferred approach to change health behaviors is implementing culturally adapted, evidence-based interventions and other patient-centered models, such as motivational interviewing and harm reduction counseling. Read more.

Eida M. Castro, Psy.D., M.S., is from the Ponce Health Sciences University in Puerto Rico. Dr. Castro’s research focuses on describing unmet medical and psychological needs over time among cancer patients in Puerto Rico who were affected by Hurricane María, identifying multilevel barriers and facilitators to accessing care, and exploring putative physiological indicators of stress in cancer patients and a matched sample of non-cancer controls, both groups having been affected by Hurricane María. Read more.

Daniel E. Jimenez, Ph.D., is from the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. Dr. Jimenez’s research interests include geriatric mental health services research, health promotion, multicultural mental health, and mental illness prevention. He has combined these areas of research to design and implement culturally appropriate and novel approaches to preventing mental illness in racial/ethnic minority older adults. Read more.

Jeremy Huckleby’s interest in physical activity and health disparities started in high school, where he played basketball and ran on the track team. He was fortunate; he attended a high school with trainers, physical therapists, and other amenities. But his friends at other schools did not have the same resources, and he saw them continue playing through sports injuries. “This disparity of access to resources was concerning as I saw others get more injured,” says Mr. Huckleby.

Now Mr. Huckleby is a medical student, and from July 2019 to June 2020, he participated in the NIH Medical Research Scholars Program (MRSP), a 1-year program that allows medical students to engage in biomedical research related to their career goals. Read more.

Telling people who previously thought they were healthy that they have diabetes is a pivotal moment. Arsène F. Hobabagabo, M.D., M.Sc., the fourth Rwandan physician to complete the NIH-Rwandan Health Program, has done that many times. While working at the Rwanda Diabetes Association, he says, “I had to transmit the hope to people that knowing they have the disease will help them better manage it, even if it is not curable.” These moments marked the beginning of inspiring patient–physician relationships, in which Dr. Hobabagabo helped people with diabetes learn how to manage their disease.

For the fourth year in a row, the NIH–Rwandan Health Program, supported by NIMHD and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), has contributed to training clinician researchers from Rwanda at the NIH campus. Read more.

A recent study partly funded by NIMHD has shown that African Americans who experience sleep disturbances are more likely to develop impaired glucose metabolism. Sleep disturbances include sleep-disordered breathing (also known as sleep apnea), overnight hypoxemia (low blood oxygen levels), and sleep fragmentation (short, repetitive interruptions to sleep). Read more.

Alzheimer’s disease and related conditions that involve loss of mental clarity (dementia) turn daily life tasks into challenges. African Americans and Hispanics are more likely than non-Hispanic Whites to experience these problems as they age. While depression and anxiety are often associated with dementia, African Americans and Hispanics with these problems are less likely than their White counterparts to be diagnosed and treated. Read more.

In the United States, African American (AA) women are more likely than European American (EA) women to die from breast cancer, although EA women are more likely to get diagnosed with the disease. The survival gap is widest among women with breast cancer that is associated with receptors for hormones causing the uncontrolled growth of breast cells. Researchers found that genetic markers expressed in breast tissue could potentially be used to predict breast cancer survival based on race. Read more.

Many low-income adults do not have dental insurance and cannot afford to pay for preventive dental visits. As a result, they are more likely than people with dental insurance to end up in the emergency department for dental care. Under the Affordable Care Act, some states have chosen to expand Medicaid coverage to previously ineligible adults, but the dental coverage varies widely by state. Read more.

Research has continued to show that African Americans are more likely than Whites to be more susceptible to certain diseases and to have different responses to medication. A team of researchers working on a project funded by NIMHD wondered if the strength of this association is related to ancestry. To answer this question, they studied gene expression profiles in liver cells of African Americans with West African ancestry. Read more.

NIMHD National Advisory Council member Spero M. Manson, Ph.D. (Pembina Chippewa), Centers for American Indian & Alaska Native Health, University of Colorado Denver, was recognized with the 2020 Career Achievement Award by the Society for Medical Anthropology. The awards committee noted they were particularly impressed by his crucial contributions to medical anthropological methods and theory through his work with American Indian and Alaska Native populations. They also highlighted Dr. Manson’s commitment to mentoring Indigenous scholars in the field of mental health.

Each year, the American Public Health Association's awards for excellence honor individuals for exceptional leadership and innovation in improving the health of the people. Kathy Ko Chin, president and CEO of the Asian and Pacific Islander American Health Forum and NIMHD grantee, was recognized in 2020 for her commitment to the health and well-being of Asian, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities.

With the 2020 NIH Director’s Awards, NIH commends 660 employees for their remarkable accomplishments. Despite the pandemic inhibiting an in-person gathering to present the awards, the recipients were honored through a creative virtual recognition program, developed in partnership with NIH leadership. Among the award recipients was NIMHD Scientific Program Director Rina Das, Ph.D., recognized for her sustained, exceptional leadership in promoting scientific innovation in NIMHD’s extramural research programs. View a video message from the NIMHD director, highlighting Dr. Das' achievements.

Billy Caceres, Ph.D., RN, an assistant professor in the Program for the Study of LGBT Health at the Columbia University School of Nursing, has received a 2020 NIH Sexual and Gender Minority (SGM) Research Investigator Award from the Sexual and Gender Minority Research Office. Dr. Caceres was a scholar in NIMHD's 2020 Health Disparities Research Institute. His research uses biobehavioral approaches to understand and reduce cardiovascular health disparities in stigmatized populations, with a focus on SGM adults. Read more about his work in the NIH SGM Research Symposium program.

NIMHD congratulates Kelvin Choi, PH.D., M.P.H., on his senior investigator appointment. Dr. Choi investigates disparities in tobacco use and tobacco product use patterns among minority populations.

NIMHD is pleased to welcome Yujing Liu, Ph.D., to NIMHD as the new chief of the Scientific Review Branch. Dr. Liu brings a wealth of experience, including impressive accomplishments and extensive supervisory experience in peer review policy and practice.

As part of its 10th anniversary activities and in observation of Hispanic Heritage Month, NIMHD welcomed Ricardo F. Muñoz, Ph.D., as the next Director’s Seminar Series speaker. He presented “On the Potential of Massive Open Online Interventions and Digital Apothecaries to Reduce Health Disparities Worldwide.” Learn more and watch the event on NIH VideoCast.

On September 28 and 29, NIMHD hosted a workshop, “The Role of Work in Health Disparities in the United States.” The purpose of the 2-day workshop was to identify priority research areas for understanding and addressing the role of work as a social determinant that contributes to health disparities.

This workshop promoted multidisciplinary health disparities research by convening experts from the research fields of health disparities, population sciences, labor economics, occupational health, epidemiology, and organizational sociology and psychology to consider work as a social determinant of health and to identify potential mechanisms and interventions addressing the role of work in health disparities. Learn more and watch the event on NIH VideoCast.

On September 29, the National Institute of Nursing Research held a virtual workshop on innovative models of care for reducing inequities in maternal health. Available via NIH VideoCast, the workshop explored how nurses, midwives, and birth companions can improve maternal and infant health, specifically for women in U.S. communities affected by structural and health inequalities. The workshop was co-sponsored by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, NIMHD, and NIH’s Office of Research on Women’s Health and Tribal Health Research Office.

On September 17, the NIH Sexual and Gender Minority Research Office (SGMRO) held the first NIH Sexual and Gender Minority Research Symposium. The daylong virtual symposium marked the fifth anniversary of the creation of the SGMRO, presented the 2020 NIH SGM Research Investigator Awards Program, and highlighted scientific lectures from the NIH Intramural Research Program. The event also announced grantees of the SGM Administrative Supplement and 2020 awardees of the NIH SGM Research Investigator Awards. View the program overview.

The NIMHD Precision Medicine and Health Disparities Collaborative (PMHDC) Implementation Core wrote a blog post about an editorial in Medical Care by NIMHD grantee Consuelo H. Wilkins, M.D., about trust in research and connecting with minority populations. Read the blog post, which includes a short video summarizing the discussion, on the Edge for Scholars website. 

On September 9, NIH hosted the Helping to End Addiction Long-term^SM (HEAL) Initiative workshop, “Social Determinants of Opioid Use: Establishing a Research Agenda to Inform Community and System Level Intervention.” The virtual workshop focused on identifying research gaps and priorities to advance our understanding of how social determinants affect substance use outcomes. Speakers and meeting participants also explored opportunities for high-impact, scalable strategies to intervene to reduce risk for drug-related outcomes. Discussions touched on various factors such as social isolation, racism/discrimination, explicit and implicit bias, interpersonal violence, social support, ethnic identity, social capital, and collective efficacy. Read more.

The 55th Meeting of the National Advisory Council on Minority Health and Health Disparities was held on September 4. Dr. Pérez-Stable presented the Director’s Report. Other speakers included Dr. Webb Hooper, NIMHD deputy director, who discussed the use of multiple approaches to address health disparities; and Brian Mustanski, Ph.D., director of the Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing, who presented SGM research in HIV disparities. Several NIMHD staff members introduced new research concepts on minority health and health disparities for clearance by the Advisory Council. Watch the event on NIH VideoCast.

A study recently published in Public Health Nutrition tested whether people were able to use food package labels to pick out the healthier whole-grain option. Researchers found that many consumers had difficulty identifying the healthfulness and whole-grain content of products like cereal and bread; 29-47% incorrectly identified the healthier products such as cereal and bread: 29% to 47% incorrectly identified the healthier products, and 43% to 51% overstated the whole-grain content of products. This confusion could cause consumers to make fewer healthy choices. Researchers suggest that disclosure of whole-grain content could help lead to enhancements in food labeling. Learn more.

Dr. Joseph Keawe‘aimoku Kaholokula shares how Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander leaders and communities are mobilizing to fight COVID-19. In the process, they are also uniting to amplify their voices about needed changes to data aggregation policies and practices for this often-overlooked group. Read the blog post.

As a child, I experienced barriers to health care access and use by my family and community firsthand. I never imagined this would lead me to pursue a career understanding and encouraging elimination of health disparities. Today, I am a part of that driving force to make a positive change for my family, my community, and generations after me. Read the blog post.

In the United States and around the world, the pandemic has changed every aspect of our lives. To better understand how researchers are being affected by COVID-19, NIMHD hosted four COVID-19 investigator forums. 

NIMHD program officers share the creative ways NIMHD-funded investigators are stepping up in the communities where they do research. Read the blog post.

As part of the National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month Blog Series, Harold W. Neighbors, Ph.D., discusses his research in racial/ethnic disparities in mental health. 

"When I started graduate school in the mid-1970s, I had just one seemingly simple research question. I wanted to know: 'Who had the higher rate of mental illness, Black or White Americans?' I remember the puzzled looks from fellow students, as most of them already knew the answer – “Blacks of course!” Their reasoning made good sense – life was harder for Blacks in the United States, and a life spent fighting against racial discrimination can lead to emotional damage." Read the blog post.