HEEHD2022

Health Disparities 

The United States (U.S.) has one of the largest income-based health disparities in the world with poor minority populations with inequitable access to health care when compared to their wealthier counterparts and are more likely to report being dissatisfied with their most recent visit to the doctor. Furthermore, racial and ethnic health disparities adversely impact African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans at significantly higher rates than white populations in the U.S., which leads to preventable diseases and illnesses in minority populations.  

Economically, health disparities amount to ~$93 billion in excess medical care costs and ~$42 billion in lost productivity per year as well as economic losses due to premature deaths, which is expected to increase to $363 billion by 2050. 

Maternal and Child Health Disparities 

Stark racial disparities and medical racism in maternal & child health in the U.S. have persisted for decades despite continued advancements in medical care that, historically, exclude Black, Hispanic, and Native American women from clinical research. 

Black and American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) women have higher rates of pregnancy-related death compared to White women. Pregnancy-related mortality rates among Black and AIAN women are over three and two times higher, respectively, compared to the rate for White women (40.8 and 29.7 vs. 12.7 per 100,000). Maternal health disparities for these minority groups increase by maternal age and persist across education levels. 

AIAN and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander (NHOPI) women are more likely compared to White women to have births with risk factors that increase the likelihood of infant mortality and can have long-term negative consequences for children’s health. AIAN and NHOPI experience higher shares of preterm births, low birthweight births, or births for which they received late or no prenatal care compared to White women. Moreover, infants born to Black, AIAN, and NHOPI women have markedly higher mortality rates than those born to White women. 

Hispanic women also have a higher share of births for which they received late or no prenatal care compared to White women. 

Black maternal morbidity disparities cause preventable death including, but not limited to, postpartum cardiomyopathy, preeclampsia/eclampsia, hemorrhage or embolism; causing Black maternal mortality rates at five times those of non-Hispanic women. 

These alarming statistics should not be the reality for millions of underserved and disadvantaged minority women and children living in the U.S.. Issues involving health equity, improving access to reliable and unbiased healthcare, transportation, and nutrition monitoring is of the utmost importance when it comes to decreasing the Black maternal morbidity rates in this country. 

Black Americans are ~13% of the U.S. population but only own ~2.6% of the nation’s wealth. Furthermore, the median Black family has only ~10% of the wealth of the median White family.  Many Black Americans do not have any “liquid” funds or other kinds of financial resources that they can utilize when they lose a job or have a pay reduction. 

While Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU)s and Minority Serving Institutions (MSI)s strive to translate their biomedical related intervention into commercial health disparity prevention innovations (i.e., with possibilities to contribute $1 billion or more in institutional endowment), their objectives are frequently curtailed by the high prevalence of National Institutes of Health (NIH) Scientific Review Group (SRG) member bias reflecting historic United States (U.S.) societal racism and bias that is frequently articulated in NIH proposal Summary Statements with higher prevalence of impact scores of “Not Discussed” given to minority companies and HBCUs/MSIs. Consequently, the hope for tech-transfer to, for example, minority biomedical companies from HBCUs/MSIs is perceived as risky and, hence, limited to non-existent because of the prevalence of economic racism. This is especially true for black biomedical companies and HBCUs/MSIs that collaborate on the NIH Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grant research, which award approximately three-quarters of a billion dollars to help U.S. businesses translate biomedical discoveries into products. However, the NIH STTR program award funding disparity is demonstrated with awards of 0.7% to African American; 1.7% to Hispanic; and 0% to Native American owned businesses.  

Overview

Organize a virtual two-day scientific conference that presents perspectives from a diverse group of research professionals and organizations (i.e., HBCUs, Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs), Faith-Based Organizations (FBO), Health  Care Organizations (HCO), Small Businesses (SB), and Community Based Organizations (CBO) to formulate scientific and practical strategies to eradicate the devastating maternal and child disparities plaguing minority pregnant women, mothers, and children of color.

The Take HEHD Intervention 

To eradicate maternal and child economic and health disparities, the 4th Annual HEEHD 2022 Virtual Conference will invite peer reviewed empirical research from HBCUs and MSIs (e.g., Hispanic Serving Institutions and Tribal Colleges), minority companies, and organizations/agencies focused on measurable techniques & methods to effectively facilitate innovative research and development (R&D); technology transfer; and resulting product/service commercialization to eradicate economic and health disparities within and among minority populations with a focus on Maternal and Child Health Disparities.  

This translational R&D oriented paradigm shift, for HBCUs/MSIs, has potential to improve the scientific knowledge of how innovative interventions, to prevent or mitigate maternal and child health disparity, are executed.  This tactical strategy has potential to economically sustain HBCUs/MSIs through technology transfer licensing revenue; galvanize a cooperative mission to address persistent economic and health disparities such as maternal and child health disparities through innovations (i.e., generated by HBCUs/MSIs); and annihilate systemic racism that attempts to curtail economic and health viability of minority populations that start during pregnancy. 

HEEHD 2022 Goals 

The HEEHD 2022 goals are to: 

1. Organize a virtual two-day scientific conference that presents perspectives from a diverse group of research professionals and organizations (i.e., HBCUs, Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs), Faith-Based Organizations (FBO), Health  Care Organizations (HCO), Small Businesses (SB), and Community Based Organizations (CBO) to formulate scientific and practical strategies to eradicate the devastating maternal and child disparities plaguing minority pregnant women, mothers, and children of color. 
2. Facilitate discussions among federal, state, and municipal collaboratives to eradicate maternal and child health disparities.
3. Present and demonstrate evidence-based “deep technologies” that mitigate and eradicate maternal and child disparities.
4. Generate an international database of culturally competent, ethical, and empathetic (CCEE) technological innovations to eradicate maternal and child health disparities and share solutions. 
5. Significantly improve the number of NIH grant awards  to minority small businesses and HBCUs/MSIs that yield intellectual property (IP) (e.g., patent and/or copyright) licenses and commercial products that create high-growth revenue for collaborating minority companies and HBCUs/MSIs and that yield high-paying jobs for minority populations.
6. Use evidence-based practices to: (a) Train HBCUs/MSIs faculty and their assisting students to tech-transfer maternal and child disparities research; (b) Conduct innovative R&D and commercialization activities to address maternal health disparities in minority populations; (c) Foster innovative collaborations and partnerships with government, industry, and NGOs to facilitate technology transfer; and (d) Disseminate empirical research results on innovative R&D, technology-transfer, and commercialization focused on addressing maternal and child health disparities.

 All participants will be required to register for the HEEHD 2022 conference, listed as follows.

The HEEHD 2022 registration will include access to the 2 Day Virtual Conference and Conference proceedings (including scientific papers)

Registration Instructions

Please, read carefully, the following information concerning the registration procedure; especially if you are the prospective presenter of an accepted paper or if you need to guarantee inclusion of your accepted paper in the HEEHD 2022 Conference proceedings.

IMPORTANT: All accepted abstract will be published in the HEEHD 2022 conference proceedings only if the full-fee registration payment for one of the authors is received and correctly processed by the registration deadline. Invited abstracts will be invited to submit full papers for publication in the International Journal of Urban Innovation and Cooperative Entrepreneurship (iJUICE)One author registration will cover the publication expenses of only ONE accepted abstract.

Click the following link to register for HEEHD 2022 [Click Here to Register] 

HEEHD 2022 invites innovators, minority businesses, HBCUs/MSIs (including other colleges/universities) to submit abstracts that reflect empirical research results and methodologies that eradicate economic, maternal and child health, and biomedical research disparities related to maternal and child disparities, worldwide.

Important Dates:

November 22, 2022 – 250 word abstract deadline.

November 25, 2022 – Notification of abstract acceptance.

December 2, 2022 – Early Bird Registration Deadline.

December 9-10, 2022 – Conference Dates.

CLICK HERE FOR>>>>  CALL FOR ABSTRACTS 

The subsequent call for papers will require authors to compose papers in a format reflecting the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Manuscript Templates for Conference Proceedings. To review paper submissions, the HEEHD 2022 conference paper review committee will use a double blind paper review methodology so that both the reviewer and author identities are concealed from the reviewers, and vice versa, throughout the review process. 

Accepted papers will be invited for publication in the International Journal of Urban Innovations and Cooperative Entrepreneurship (iJUICE).

Keynote Speaker – Urmeka T. Jefferson, PhD, RN

Dr. Urmeka T. Jefferson has over 16 years experience caring for infants and mothers in the NICU and WBN. Her clinical experience drives her research focused on reducing disparities in breastfeeding to improve morbidity and mortality for vulnerable infants.

Dr. Jefferson’s scholarly contributions have been in three main areas: 1) The association of infant feeding attitudes and exposure to breastfeeding intentions; 2) Determinants of breastfeeding behavior among African American and rural women; and 3) Use of technology to improve access to breastfeeding support services.

She has designed the Mother’s Milk Connection app to support breastfeeding women from the prenatal period through birth and after hospital discharge.   Jefferson is currently focused on research aimed to examine the impact of the Mother’s Milk Connection mHealth intervention on breastfeeding initiation, duration, and exclusivity.