Columbia University Researchers Receive $6 Million Grant To Establish Health Disparities Center

New York, February 13, 2003 – Researchers from Columbia University have received a $6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities to establish a research center on minority health and health disparities. The interdisciplinary center, which will be named the Columbia Center for the Health of Urban Minorities (CHUM), will focus on identifying ways in which access to care shapes racial and ethnic disparities in health care use and outcomes.

CHUM, which is one of 10 NIH Project EXPORT (Excellence in Partnerships for Community Outreach, Research on Disparities in Health and Training) centers nationwide, will be based at the Center for Community Health Partnerships at Columbia University’s Health Sciences campus. Olveen Carrasquillo, M.D., MPH, assistant professor of medicine at Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons (P&S), will be the principal investigator of the center. Rafael Lantigua, M.D., professor of clinical medicine at P&S, will serve as the co-principal investigator.

“This is a wonderful opportunity for Columbia Health Sciences to conduct health disparity research, which will lead to a greater understanding of health disparities both in research and training,” said Gerald D. Fischbach, executive vice president for health and biomedical sciences and dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Columbia University. “The Center for Community Health Partnerships is a natural home and ideally situated for the oversight of this project. We are very pleased to have been chosen.”

Over the next five years, 27 researchers (including 13 minority investigators) from Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons, the New York State Psychiatric Institute, Harlem Hospital, and the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University will join together with members of the northern Manhattan community to explore ways to improve health in minority populations, especially within northern Manhattan.

“A central feature of CHUM will be to establish a culture of community collaborations within the medical center’s research activities,” said Dr. Carrasquillo. “One of our goals is to make a paradigm shift in the way community-based research is conducted. Rather than holding on to the traditional academic perspective in which research is done either ‘on’ or ‘for’ the community, it will be done ‘with’ the community.”

To help facilitate this shift, a planning council composed of community-based organizations and academic researchers will collectively develop, evaluate and modify approaches to community-based activities in each of the grant’s research areas: financial barriers and how barriers to access affect cardiovascular disease, mental health, diabetes, and unintentional injuries. In addition, researchers at the center will develop a four-year cultural competency curriculum for all medical students at Columbia University’s College of Physicians & Surgeons, as well as special masters of public health program to support the training of minority investigators and other researchers who focus on minority health and health disparities research.

“This grant provides Columbia with the opportunity to be at the forefront of cultural competency training and to develop a national model for all health sciences students, ” said Dr. Robert Lewy, medical director for the Center for Community Health Partnerships.

The Center for Community Health Partnerships (CCHP) is a resource center that enables physicians, dentists, nurses, and public health professionals at Columbia University to collaborate on community-based projects that reduce health care disparities while opening avenues to improve community health. It is based at Columbia University’s Health Sciences Division.

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Note: Dr. Carrasquillo is available for interviews in both English and Spanish.