SFSU Joins National Effort to End Health Care Disparities

On-campus research conducted by minority faculty a goal

As part of a nationwide commitment to end health disparities in America, San Francisco State University recently received a $5 million, five-year grant to boost health research by minority faculty and develop on-campus resources that will continue to support such research.

Despite the proportion of gross national product spent on healthcare, good health continues to elude a high proportion of the U.S. population. Investigations into the ways that personal health and health care delivery varies by race and other factors are the focus of the NIH funded Research Training in Health Disparities (RTHD) project.

A priority of the project is to involve more minority researchers. SFSU will use a portion of its $5 million grant to provide fellowships aimed to boost the number of minority faculty researchers on campus. Those selected will receive assistance such as reimbursed release from teaching responsibilities while they are researching and preparing their grant proposals.

Another portion of the funding will support the newly formed SFSU Grant Development Resource Facility where the Fellows and other faculty who wish to research health disparities can develop their grant applications. Located a few minutes away from campus in the Pacific Plaza building near the Daly City Bart station, the facility houses a library and other grant resource tools. A third portion of the RTHD funding supports two SFSU faculty research projects already in progress.

James A. Wiley, professor of sociology and director of the Public Research Institute who is administering the RTHD program at SFSU, believes that the program addresses the pressing question of what the role of a university in community health is. "I'm hoping that our facilities and programs attract and involve every SFSU department and college that has an interest in investigating health disparities," says Wiley. "I'm personally counting on our programs to nurture new researchers and foster many more research projects at SFSU."

For more information about the Research Training in Health Disparities project visit http://rimi2.sfsu.edu/fellows/fdesc.html.

Media Contact: Denize Springer, 415/405-3803 or 415/338-1665