adplus-dvertising
Connect with us

Health

Seminar series spotlights complexities of race data collection

Published

 on

 


Juliet Daniel is a pioneering biologist and distinguished cancer researcher. Abel Chikanda is a human geographer with a focus on international development. Lawrence Mbuagbaw leads research on optimizing outcomes for key populations living with HIV.  

All three will share how the complexities of race and data collection impact their work at a seminar held on campus this week.  

The event is part of a monthly seminar series at McMaster that aims to forge stronger ties between students, community members and Black scholars from across disciplines. 

Daniel, who studies an aggressive sub-type of breast cancer that has been found to disproportionately affect young Black women, says conversations around race — while difficult — are essential to advancing research and addressing disparities in patient outcomes.  

“When I started my research, no one talked about the predisposition of Black people to cancers, let alone breast cancer,” says Daniel. “If I had not gone to one conference and heard in a researcher’s talk that Black women were disproportionately dying of triple negative breast cancer, I might not be doing this research.” 

Daniel is a co-founder of the African Caribbean Faculty Association of McMaster (ACFAM) Network, and the Canadian Black Scientists Network. She will receive Onyx Magazine’s2024 Woman of the Year award at the annual Women on the Move awards next month.  

A longtime advocate for race-based data collection, she points to the huge benefits it can bring society, and to the lives of patients.  

“If we recognize and study how different demographics are affected by diseases — whether it’s cancer or heart disease or diabetes — we can investigate whether there are molecular genetic or other factors contributing to that. Ultimately it will help us to tease apart the disease and its causes.” 


A text-heavy graphic advertising a seminar entitled, ‘An interdisciplinary exploration of race and data collection.’By sharing the barriers and realities he has faced in conducting research, he hopes to shed light on the oppression and challenges that people of colour continue to experience.  

“As a human race, we have made huge strides towards ensuring racial equity but more still needs to be done,” says Chikanda. “It is […] our responsibility as scholars to uncover these structures of oppression and be the light that guides our society towards building a more inclusive world.” 

Lawrence Mbuagbaw, an associate professor of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact and a 2023 University Scholar, has contributed to the development of WHO guidelines on HIV, malaria and tuberculosis as a methodologist, systematic reviewer and technical resource person. 

His talk at the seminar will focus on HIV and feature ten things researchers and community members should know about race data.  

The next event in the series, entitled Spotlighting Emerging Scholar: Fresh Perspectives and Research Narratives, will take place on March 27th 


Click here to learn more about the event and to register for any of the seminars. Admission is open to the public and free. 

 

Related Stories

Continue Reading

Health

The US is mailing Americans COVID tests again. Here’s how to get them

Published

 on

 

WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans can once again order COVID-19 tests, without being charged, sent straight to their homes.

The U.S. government reopened the program on Thursday, allowing any household to order up to four at-home COVID nasal swab kits through the website, covidtests.gov. The tests will begin shipping, via the United States Postal Service, as soon as next week.

The website has been reopened on the heels of a summer COVID-19 virus wave and heading into the fall and winter respiratory virus season, with health officials urging Americans to get an updated COVID-19 booster and their yearly flu shot.

“Before you visit with your family and friends this holiday season, take a quick test and help keep them safe from COVID-19,” U.S. Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response Dawn O’Connell said in a statement.

U.S. regulators approved an updated COVID-19 vaccine that is designed to combat the recent virus strains and, they hope, forthcoming winter ones, too. Vaccine uptake is waning, however. Most Americans have some immunity from prior infections or vaccinations, but under a quarter of U.S. adults took last fall’s COVID-19 shot.

Using the swab, people can detect current virus strains ahead of the fall and winter respiratory virus season and the holidays. Over-the-counter COVID-19 at-home tests typically cost around $11, as of last year. Insurers are no longer required to cover the cost of the tests.

Before using any existing at-home COVID-19 tests, you should check the expiration date. Many of the tests have been given an extended expiration from the date listed on the box. You can check on the Food and Drug Administration’s website to see if that’s the case for any of your remaining tests at home.

Since COVID-19 first began its spread in 2020, U.S. taxpayers have poured billions of dollars into developing and purchasing COVID-19 tests as well as vaccines. The Biden administration has given out 1.8 billion COVID-19 tests, including half distributed to households by mail. It’s unclear how many tests the government still has on hand.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Source link

Continue Reading

Health

Free COVID tests are back. Here’s how to order a test to your home

Published

 on

 

WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans can once again order free COVID-19 tests sent straight to their homes.

The U.S. government reopened the program on Thursday, allowing any household to order up to four at-home COVID nasal swab kits through the website, covidtests.gov. The tests will begin shipping, via the United States Postal Service, as soon as next week.

The website has been reopened on the heels of a summer COVID-19 virus wave and heading into the fall and winter respiratory virus season, with health officials urging Americans to get an updated COVID-19 booster and their yearly flu shot.

U.S. regulators approved an updated COVID-19 vaccine that is designed to combat the recent virus strains and, they hope, forthcoming winter ones, too. Vaccine uptake is waning, however. Most Americans have some immunity from prior infections or vaccinations, but under a quarter of U.S. adults took last fall’s COVID-19 shot.

Using the swab, people can detect current virus strains ahead of the fall and winter respiratory virus season and the holidays. Over-the-counter COVID-19 at-home tests typically cost around $11, as of last year. Insurers are no longer required to cover the cost of the tests.

Since COVID-19 first began its spread in 2020, U.S. taxpayers have poured billions of dollars into developing and purchasing COVID-19 tests as well as vaccines. The Biden administration has given out 1.8 billion COVID-19 tests, including half distributed to households by mail. It’s unclear how many tests the government still has on hand.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Source link

Continue Reading

Health

Disability rights groups launching Charter challenge against MAID law

Published

 on

 

TORONTO – A coalition of disability rights groups says it is launching a Charter challenge against a part of Canada’s law on medical assistance in dying.

The group, which also includes two individual plaintiffs, argues that what’s known as track two of the MAID law has resulted in premature deaths.

Under the law, patients whose natural deaths are not reasonably foreseeable but whose condition leads to intolerable suffering can apply for a track-two assisted death.

The coalition says track two of the MAID law has had a direct effect on the lives of people with disabilities and argues medically assisted death should only be available to those whose natural death is reasonably foreseeable.

The executive vice-president of Inclusion Canada – which is part of the coalition – says there has been an alarming trend where people with disabilities are seeking assisted death due to social deprivation, poverty and a lack of essential supports.

Krista Carr says those individuals should instead be supported in order to live better lives.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 26, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Source link

Continue Reading

Trending