• American Indian – Cancers, diseases of the heart, and accidents (unintentional injuries)
• Hispanic – Diseases of the heart, cancers, strokes
•  African-American - Diseases of the heart, cancers, strokes
• Asian / Pacific Islanders – Cancers, Diseases of the heart, strokes
• Caucasian (non-Hispanic) – Diseases of the heart, cancers, strokes

• Minority women are 2-3 times more likely than Caucasian, non-Hispanic women to have Type II diabetes.
• African American woman have the highest mortality rate from breast cancer, colorectal cancer and cervical cancer of all population groups.
• African American women had a maternal mortality rate three times higher than Caucasian, non-Hispanic women in 2000.
• The AIDS rate for African American women is almost four times that for Hispanic women and almost 20 times that for Caucasian , non-Hispanic women.

D'Ante Bradley of Nashville takes a stutter step to the basketball hoop behind his home and lobs an underhanded layup that rattles through the chain-link net.

He would have liked to play for his Whites Creek High School basketball team, but his body might not have endured the demanding practices and schedules.

Bradley, 15, suffers from sickle cell disease, a genetic blood disorder that causes severe pain plus organ and joint damage. The only outward sign is the soft yellow color of his eyes.

"It's hard dealing with it because it hurts," he said. "You have every day pain."

Sickle cell disease is caused by a defective gene that deforms red blood cells into hook, or sickle shapes. Sickle-shaped cells get stuck in small blood vessels and block the flow of healthy blood cells. The blockages cause oxygen deprivation throughout the body, which damages tissues and causes pain. Despite advances in research and treatment, many people, including some doctors, still do not understand the disease. As a result, children who grow to adulthood with sickle cell often do not get the best care.

Dr. Steven Wolff, director of Meharry Sickle Cell Center in Nashville, said the disease can impair vision and hamper the immune system, making children much more vulnerable to infections of the blood and lungs. The disease causes anemia and liver damage, which often leads to jaundice or yellowing of the skin and eyes. Many sickle cell patients need joint replacement surgery when they get older. The disease can cause fatal complications such as strokes and kidney failure.

"Sickle cell disease is a disease of the blood, but it affects every organ," Wolff said.

The disease primarily affects African-Americans. About one in 12 African-Americans carry the gene, though most don't know it, Wolff said. You can have the disease only if you carry two copies of the sickle cell gene, one from each parent.

D'Ante Bradley's mother, Jackie Estill, didn't know the gene ran in her family until her son was diagnosed with the disease.

"I was terrified," she said. "All I knew then was that it was a black disease and that people died young."

Before 1980, more than 15 percent of children with the disease died before they turned 20. But treatment for children has greatly improved, increasing life expectancy from a mere 14 years to 50 years or more.

Giving children antibiotics and vaccinations to prevent infections has helped. Children who are very sick might need blood transfusions. Some patients also take a chemotherapy drug called hydroxyurea, which has been shown to reduce sickling in the blood cells, Wolff said. In some cases, bone marrow transplants can cure sickle cell disease in children.

But for adults, the primary problem is regular management of symptoms — especially severe "pain crises" — and a comprehensive care plan that includes all aspects of their health.

Juanita Mack of Murfreesboro found out she had sickle cell disease when she was 5 years old. Mack and one of her brothers are the only people in her family with the disease. Her parents had never heard of it before her diagnosis.

"Growing up in Murfreesboro was difficult," she said. "There were almost no doctors who knew anything about sickle cell."

Even as an adult, Mack, who is now 49, said few health professionals fully understand her disease. "I still have nurses ask me, what is sickle cell? What does it do?" she said.

It hurts. "It can feel like somebody is stabbing you with an ice pick," she explained. Each crisis is different. Sometimes it's nothing more than an ache in her hands or feet. Other times, the pain is enough to double her over and make her cry. It can last for 30 minutes or for days.

When the pain is bad enough to send Mack to the hospital, she may not get immediate relief. "The first thing medical people assume when we come into a hospital is that we're looking for drugs, looking for a fix."

Dr. Patricia Adams-Graves is the director of the Diggs-Kraus Sickle Cell Center in Memphis. She said sickle cell patients usually try to treat their pain at home with hot showers, heating pads and prescription or over-the-counter pain medicine. They go to the emergency room only when pain becomes unbearable.

"It's like putting a tight rubber band on the end of your finger, and you can't take it off," she said.

Many sickle cell patients require strong drugs such as morphine or oxycodone to assuage their pain. That's where the trouble comes in. Adams-Graves said the fact that most of these patients are black, and rarely have outward signs that they are sick, creates a stereotype that sickle cell sufferers are just seeking drugs to get high. Not all doctors believe the stereotype, but it still causes some doctors to delay giving patients medication or to give them lower doses.

"Doctors are very uncomfortable treating pain because they can't see it," she said. "We worry far too much about addiction and about being tricked into giving people drugs. It's better to err on the side of easing pain than to err on the side of being tricked."

Adults with sickle cell disease are more likely to need health services, but less likely to have access to them, said Dr. Adetola Kassim, director of the adult sickle cell clinic at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Kassim and other local doctors want to create a joint sickle cell care center operated by Meharry Medical College and Vanderbilt. Kassim said such a center would coordinate care for sickle cell patients from birth through their adult lives. It would provide adults with a place to get a pain crisis under control in a fraction of the time it would take in a hospital ER.

"The ER can be tricky," he said. "You could be about to get treated, but if there's a crash on I-65 or someone comes in from a massive heart attack, they have priority. You come second."

Patients who need to be hospitalized could stay at the sickle cell center rather than wait for a hospital bed. The center would not replace a person's regular, primary care doctor, but supplement care with regular screenings and monitoring of their disease for complications. A comprehensive center would also be an information resource for physicians. If patients travel away from home and need care, doctors can call the center for information about the patient and about treating sickle cell disease. "That will educate people on the other side so they don't have to experiment on these patients," he said. Studies at such centers in other parts of the country have shown that the cost of treating patients is lower in this setting than in the ER.

It always helps for sickle cell patients and their families to educate themselves about managing their disease.

"We know what helps us and what doesn't," Mack said. She learned that keeping warm, drinking a lot of water and minimizing stress helps her disease. She joined a sickle cell support group that meets at the Matthew Walker Comprehensive Health Center in north Nashville. She's also working on a documentary about sickle cell disease.

Bradley uses heating pads and warm showers to help with his pain. He drinks a lot of fluid and tries not to overexert himself. It means he can't run around with his friends as much as he may want, but he accepts that. "I'd rather not get sick than play with my friends."

Bradley wants people to understand that it's not easy, even though he looks fine.

"I know there are other serious diseases. But I think my disease is serious because I have it," he said. "I want to see commercials on TV and people raising money for sickle cell patients for their treatment and surgery they way they do for cancer and AIDS." •

Tuesday, 10/03/06

Curbing youth violence is focus of new Meharry initiative

Meharry Medical College is launching a new program to develop strategies to combat youth violence with a $4.2 million federal grant, over five years.

Initiatives will include funding a bullying-prevention program in area middle schools and developing a youth-violence surveillance system, to better understand where crimes are occurring and who is committing them.

We have to find ways to stop the violence that is devouring the jewels of our future," said Valerie Montgomery Rice, Meharry's dean of the School of Medicine, said at a press conference today. "(This grant) is going to allow us to take back our children, embrace them, teach them, hold them, provide alternatives and empower them."

Meharry will work in collaboration with other universities, community-based organizations, and the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention, among others.

The funding for the initiative comes from the CDC.

Finally.The Truth about Seat Belt Use Among Hispanics
John Britton
01/29/2007 - Nashville, Tenn. - While seat belts reduce by about 50 percent the risks of injuries and deaths in motor vehicle crashes, results from more than a dozen studies of seatbelt use disparities between Hispanics and non-Hispanics over the years have been strikingly inconsistent. In the December 2006 issue of Injury Prevention, a leading international peer reviewed journal for health professionals and others interested in all unintentional injuries, Meharry-State Farm Alliance researchers at Nashville's Meharry Medical College reconciled the inconsistencies. In so doing, the authors, led by epidemiologists Nathaniel C. Briggs, M.D., opened a window of opportunity for promoting safe driving practices among the Hispanic immigrants arriving in the United States every year.


Meharry researcher wins $4 million grant to study toxins' effects
D'Ann Redd
01/17/2007 - Meharry Medical College researcher Dr. Darryl B. Hood received a $4 million dollar grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to study the effects of environmental toxin exposures that economically disadvantaged communities are exposed to at home and in the workplace.


Meharry, SEIU Employees Reach Agreement; Sign 5 Year Pact
D'Ann Redd
01/16/2007 - Nashville, Tenn. - Ranking executives of Meharry Medical College and the leadership of Local 205 of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) signed a labor-management agreement today that was ratified last week by members of the College's SEIU bargaining unit. The agreement is effective immediately and remains in force through 2011. Principal signatories were Wayne J. Riley, M.D., MBA president and chief executive of Meharry; Doug Collier, director of Tennessee operation for SEIU; and Gloria Jones, chief steward of Local 205's Meharry chapter.


Meharry-State Farm Alliance Presents Coveted Seat Belt Award
12/04/2006 - MISSISSIPPI-The primary enforcement seat belt law that took effect in Mississippi, May 27, 2006, was the featured attraction at an evening of thanksgiving sponsored on November 1 by the Nashville-based Meharry-State Farm Alliance at the Downtown Marriott Hotel in Jackson. The praise for lives saved and injuries prevented on state highways was as smooth and uncomplicated and gracious as Division 1 gridiron power plays each Saturday afternoon in the fall. Nobody was thrown for a loss for words. Nobody fumbled.


$14 Million Grant Awarded for Cancer Study
11/28/2006 - NASHVILLE---The Meharry/Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Partnership has been awarded $14 million by the National Cancer Institute for research that seeks to reduce cancer mortality among African Americans and other minorities. The renewal grant will provide $10 million to Meharry Medical College and $4 million to Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center. The announcement was made by the Meharry/Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Partnership and U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper.


Meharry Medical College Names New President, Dr. Wayne Riley
D'Ann Redd
11/03/2006 - NASHVILLE - (November 3, 2006) - Meharry Medical College is pleased to announce that Dr. Wayne J. Riley, vice president and vice dean for health affairs and governmental relations at Baylor College of Medicine, has been named its tenth president and CEO effective January 1, 2007, according to Milton H. Jones, Jr., chairman of the board of trustees.


The Grand Opening of the Center for Women's Health Research at Meharry
D'Ann Redd
10/26/2006 - Nashville, TN--Meharry Medical College has established the nation's first research center devoted to the scientific inquiry of diseases that disproportionately impact women of color-the Center for Women's Health Research (CWHR). The Center will celebrate the formal opening of its new facility on Thursday October 26 at 5:00 p.m.


Curbing youth violence is focus of new Meharry initiative
D'Ann Redd
10/11/2006 - Meharry Medical College is launching a new program to develop strategies to combat youth violence with a $4.2 million federal grant, over five years. Initiatives will include funding a bullying-prevention program in area middle schools and developing a youth-violence surveillance system, to better understand where crimes are occurring and who is committing them.


Meharry Medical College Names Dr. Epps Interim President
07/10/2006 - Nashville, Tennessee - Meharry Medical College's Board of Trustees has named A. Cherrie Epps, Ph.D., former dean of its School of Medicine and senior vice president for Academic Affairs, to serve as interim president while it identifies a new leader for the school's promising future.


Nashville General, state prison deal imminent
By: John Rodgers - Nash City Paper
07/05/2006 - Nashville General appears likely to strike a three-year deal to continue providing health care to state prisoners.


Nashville General Hospital Offers No-cost Mammograms in May
05/08/2006 - Nashville General Hospital at Meharry joins together with SunTrust Bank and the Susan G. Komen Foundation for the fight against breast cancer


Meharry Commencement May 20 Features World Renowned Neurosurgeon
05/01/2006 - Dr. Benjamin Carson of Johns Hopkins will keynote the 131st Commencement as approximately 150 graduates from the School of Dentistry, School of Graduate Studies and Research, and School of Medicine earn degrees.


Meharry Commencement May 20 Features World Renowned Neurosurgeon
05/01/2006 -