Genomics: The Next Big Thing in Mining the Genome Women's Health: Communicating Breast Cancer Risk and Means of Prevention Oral Biology: The Mouth's Microbes Could Hold Clues to Early Cancer Detection Genetics: Rearrangement of DNA Shown to Cause Certain Lymphomas Structural Biology: Molecular Jumping Jack Shows Off Moves Minority Health: Drug Abuse and Bioterrorism Among Issues Raised by Minority Fellows The Summer Bookshelf: Recent Books by Faculty of HMS, HSDM, and HSPH Cloning Study Creates Tissues for Transplantation Heart Protection by Corticosteroids Bypasses Gene Regulation Anti-aging Mechanism Shown in Yeast, May Be Similar in People Proceedings of the HMS Faculty Council Actor Ford Named Global Environmental Citizen Portraits of HMS Women Faculty Leaders Unveiled Human Genome Chief Forecasts Blue Skies for Medical Genomics HOLLIS Gets New Look, Features Alpert Prize Winners Reveal Secrets of the Heart HMS Junior Faculty Receive Armenise Awards Biosecurity Conference Addresses Bioterrorism Threat Barger Speaker Urges Advocacy New Howard Hughes Investigators Chosen for Patient-oriented Research HMS Presents Faculty Awards Honors and Advances Where Have All the Surgeons Gone? Front Page

MINORITY HEALTH Drug Abuse and Bioterrorism Among Issues Raised by Minority Fellows Health disparities remain a serious problem in the U.S., and they tend to amplify health problems for all Americans. So what is the solution? The primary answers given at the May 19 annual meeting of the Commonwealth Fund/Harvard University Fellowship in Minority Health Policy were data, data, and more data. Specifically, the eight fellows who presented at the meeting agreed that more data on minority health needs to be gathered. Fellow Shairi Turner (right) confers with keynote speaker Claude Allen during a break in a daylong series of talks on minority health. (Photo by Steve Gilbert) In his keynote address, Claude Allen, the Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services, indicated that the federal government concurs: "It is so vital that we make a certain effort to reduce and eliminate the disparities that exist in our communities of color throughout this country," he said. "This is a priority of the President, of the Secretary, and so much so that they asked me to take on this task, to champion it for the department." In their talks, the fellows described their own research and their resulting recommendations for the future. Shairi Turner, HMS research fellow in social medicine, described her study of substance abuse policies in the Massachusetts Department of Youth Services (DYS, the juvenile justice system) and their implications for minority adolescents. Her objective was to assess the extent of substance use on the part of minorities in the system and make policy recommendations for improving interventions in DYS Day Reporting Centers. Turner analyzed quantitative data from an anonymous survey done in March 2000 of 1,470 youths in DYS detention and reporting centers. She also reviewed data from the reporting centers to determine actual urine drug test results by site. One of her conclusions was that when all the usage figures are taken into account, minority youths have somewhat lower rates of substance use than white youths. Yet more minorities are processed through the system than whites. "We're finding that minorities are sent to prison," Turner said, "nonminorities are sent to the limited substance abuse treatment centers." One of her recommendations was for DYS to label its drug test results by subject, race, and ethnicity to more easily track trends in usage among groups. In a talk on regional disease surveillance with national implications, fellow Octavio Martinez Jr. exposed weaknesses of the health infrastructure in the U.S.-Mexico border region, the 100-kilometer-wide swath of land that stretches through California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. The border population has grown explosively in recent years to 11,500,000 and is projected to double by 2020, said Martinez, who is chief resident in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. The majority is either Hispanic or native American. The public health infrastructure has not kept pace with the population and, consequently, the area is open to bioterrorism since agents could be dispersed without early detection and response. "If the border is vulnerable, the country as a whole is vulnerable," Martinez said. The main problem, he explained, is a lack of health care providers; specifically, primary care physicians, psychiatrists, and dentists. There is also a lack of staffed beds. If anthrax were released, he said, "How effective do you think the medical response would be without health care providers? Without an integrated admission, surveillance, and communications system in place, symptoms would go unnoticed." Appropriations for public health infrastructure have increased tenfold since 2001, Martinez said. Among other efforts, Senators Kay Hutchison of Texas and Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico introduced a bill on December 20, 2001, to address the border region's public health preparedness. Martinez recommended that the United States-Mexico Border Health Commission work with the Department of Health and Human Services to strategically place community health centers along the border, collaborate to increase the number of providers in the region, and strengthen surveillance and communication. Other studies by the Commonwealth Fund/Harvard fellows included the design of a pediatric asthma registry for Massachusetts; a strategic plan for diabetes intervention in Arizona's Gila River Indian community, where the Pima Indians have the highest incidence and prevalence of type 2 diabetes in the world; and an analysis of dental readiness among Army recruits, which found that 42 percent of recruits could not be deployed according to regulations due to their significant dental disease. The Commonwealth Fund/Harvard University Fellowship in Minority Health Policy began in 1995 through support from the Commonwealth Fund. It is directed at HMS by Joan Reede, dean for diversity and community partnership. --Robert Neal