Health Disparities

Health disparities have the largest impact on the access, quality of care and outcomes overall in many patient populations defined by factors such as race, ethnicity, gender, education level, income, disability, geographic location. Many other factors also play a role, including if a patient is in a rural of urban location, distances to hospitals, pharmacies and clinics. These factors of inequitable access or healthcare are often directly related to the historical and ongoing unequal distribution of social, political, economic, and environmental resources. This page includes content defining health disparities and efforts to address them.
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Mammography disparities found among black, Hispanic women

While early screening and detection can play an important role in preventing breast cancer, new research from Mayo Clinic shows that some women, particularly minority women, aren’t being screened as often as their white counterparts. 

Study to investigate racial disparities in Alzheimer's disease

Racial disparities in health among Americans generally has not been understood very well, often because clinical research trials historically didn’t focus on non-white subjects, according to Forbes. 

Disparities based on age, race persist in PET use for lung cancer patients

Demographic differences in the use of PET imaging among Medicare beneficiaries with non-small cell lung cancer have persisted since the modality’s approval by Medicare in 1998, according to a study published online Feb. 15 in Radiology.

New rankings provide county-to-county health snapshots

People who live in healthier counties tend to have higher education levels, are more likely to be employed, have access to more healthcare providers and have more access to healthier foods, parks and recreational facilities, according to a report on the rank of overall health of every county in the U.S. from the University of Wisconsins Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF).

Around the web

The patient, who was being cared for in the ICU, was not accompanied or monitored by nursing staff during his exam, despite being sedated.

The nuclear imaging isotope shortage of molybdenum-99 may be over now that the sidelined reactor is restarting. ASNC's president says PET and new SPECT technologies helped cardiac imaging labs better weather the storm.

CMS has more than doubled the CCTA payment rate from $175 to $357.13. The move, expected to have a significant impact on the utilization of cardiac CT, received immediate praise from imaging specialists.