EDI News

DCI researchers address health disparities in stomach and lung cancer

As the COVID-19 pandemic shines a light on health disparities, efforts to find new ways to reduce them get a boost.

Lung cancer is responsible for the greatest number of cancer deaths each year in the United States and in North Carolina, and African Americans carry a disproportionate share of this burden. African Americans are more likely to be diagnosed with lung cancer and more likely to die from it, compared to White people.

Physician-scientist takes the long view and sets her sights high

Dr. Bryan Batch, a Duke endocrinologist and researcher, studies treating metabolic disorders (like diabetes) with non-pharmacological approaches. But, she says, her parents’ medical professions, and the hard work that went into them, resulted in her not wanting to pursue science at all as a child.

When she took biology in middle school however, it clicked. It didn’t feel like “the slog of math,” she says, because she enjoyed studying life in its different forms. This infatuation with science combined with a love for other people pushed her to pursue medicine.

LATIN-19 Co-founders discuss COVID-19's impact on the Latinx community

Duke University School of Medicine Dean Mary E. Klotman, MD, talks with co-founders of Duke’s LATIN-19 initiative Viviana S. Martinez-Bianchi, MD, Associate Professor of Family Medicine and Community Health, and Gabriela Maradiaga Panayotti, MD, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Latinx community and LATIN-19’s organized efforts to advocate for needs of this community of people.

 

SOM plans for a future focused on equity

Duke University School of Medicine (SOM) leaders, faculty and staff discussed approaches for dismantling racism during an hour-long, virtual town hall on Monday, Dec. 7. The discussion was part of Moments to Movement – Duke Health’s collective stand against systemic racism and injustice.

Day of Remembrance caps Transgender Awareness Week

On Transgender Day of Remembrance, the culmination of Transgender Awareness Week, the Duke University School of Medicine honors and commemorates the lives of the transgender and gender non-binary community lost to deadly violence over the past year. There is much work still left to do. Today, we also want to recognize the remarkable courage, tenacity, and joy this group has brought to our society.