Groundbreaking scholar in trauma disparities offers public lecture

Groundbreaking scholar in trauma disparities offers public lecture

By: HIPRC Date: April 19th, 2017

Health Equity Public Lecture with Dr. Adil Haider. May 22, 2017, 6-7:30 p.m., University of Washington School of Social Work, Room 305Dr. Adil Haider of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, who is credited with uncovering racial disparities after traumatic injury and establishing the field of trauma disparities research, will kick off the launch of the Injury-related Health Equity Across the Lifespan (iHeal) program at the University of Washington.

His free, public lecture is May 22, 6-7:30 p.m., at University of Washington’s School of Social Work, Room 305. RSVPs are requested for the event, which is sponsored by the UW’s Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center, School of Social Work and the Population Health Initiative. The day-long symposium on May 23 will help identify the current state of health equity research and practice and work to set a national agenda to address disparities.

Haider is a prolific and active researcher and trauma surgeon and serves as Kessler Director for the Center for Surgery and Public Health. The center is a joint initiative of Brigham and Women’s hospital, Harvard Medical School and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. His talk will consider health equity after injury and help start the conversation at the symposium.

Haider was the lead author on the 2013 paper “Disparities in trauma care and outcomes in the United States: A systematic review and meta-analysis,” which found that trauma care is not immune to disparities along racial and ethnic lines. The research team’s analysis indicated that the perceived immediacy and availability of trauma care does not prevent outcome disparities for these groups.

The authors’ meta-analysis of 35 studies found that black trauma patients had higher odds of death than white trauma patients. They found no significant difference in comparing Hispanic patients and white patients, though the paper noted that previous studies have found conflicting results in their comparisons.

In other recent publications, Haider’s work has also explored the roles of unconscious race and class bias, treating facilities, patients, providers and other factors to explain racial outcome disparities.

Research by Haider and others indicates that more work is needed to understand and address discrepancies in outcomes in healthcare, and event organizers hope the iHeal lecture and symposium will foster further exploration.

Dr. Ana Núñez, associate dean for diversity, equity and inclusion at Drexel University’s College of Medicine, will keynote the symposium. She is nationally known for her work as a medical educator on women’s health, curricular reform and cultural competency.

To learn more or to register for the event, visit the iHeal registration page.