HARTFORD, CT - The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts and The Curtis D. Robinson Men’s Health Institute at Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center and partner Tuskegee University presented “AN HISTORIC DISCUSSION ABOUT HEALTH DISPARITIES” on April 19, 2011.
The Curtis D. Robinson Men's Health Institute at Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center welcomed panel discussion moderator, Jewel Mullen, MD, MPH, MPA, Commissioner for the Connecticut Department of Public Health. Panelists included: Curtis D. Robinson, Founder and Philanthropist, Curtis D. Robinson Men’s Health Institute at Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center (Special Remarks); Dr. L.D. Britt, Brickhouse Professor and Chairman, Department of Surgery at Eastern Virginia Medical School, the 91st President of the American College of Surgeons and Advisory Board Member for the Curtis D. Robinson Men's Health Institute; Christopher M. Dadlez, President & CEO, Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center and Advisory Board Member for the Curtis D. Robinson Men’s Health Institute; Dr. Garth Graham, Deputy Asst. Secretary for Minority Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Jose Ortiz, MS, MBA, President and Chief Executive Officer of The Hispanic Health Council; Dr. Wayne Rawlins, National Medical Director for Racial and Ethnic Equality Initiatives at Aetna and Dr. Gilbert L. Rochon, President, Tuskegee University, Advisory Board Member, Curtis D. Robinson Men’s Health Institute.
The goal of the Curtis D. Robinson Men’s Health Institute is to address the racial disparities in Men’s Health for men of color, particularly in the areas of patient education, early diagnosis and appropriate treatment of African American men at risk for prostate cancer
St. Francis, Tuskegee Univ. team up to combat prostate cancer
St. Francis Hospital on Tuesday signed a memorandum of understanding
with Tuskegee University to establish a joint partnership for research
on prostate cancer and its disproportionate mortality rates among
African-American men.
The collaboration will include scientific research, testing and
discovery towards finding a cure for prostate cancer.
As part of the new partnership Alabama-based Tuskegee University will
receive tissue samples from prostate surgeries of African-American men
performed at St. Francis's Curtis D. Robinson Men's Health Institute.
Researchers at Tuskegee University will use the tissue to study why
black men are plagued with prostate cancer at such alarming rates.
"This partnership is a leading-edge, very novel approach to finding a
cure for prostate cancer," said Jeffrey Steinberg, the senior vice
president for health policy and disparity at St. Francis Hospital.
"We're creating a research relationship with Tuskegee University and
providing them with necessary materials to conduct research to further
their understanding of how prostate cancer is passed on in
African-American men and also to predict which cancers will be more
aggressive," added Steinberg.
The Tuskegee research program has previously had only random samples
for its research. The new partnership will allow the university to
routinely receive prostate cancer tissue from African-American men
participating in the Men's Health Institute at St. Francis.
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