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PAIR Center Celebrates Black History Month and Heart Health Month

February 5, 2024

Excerpt

Heart Health and Black History Month are important to the PAIR Center

As we step into February and our annual celebration of Black History Month, we are also thrilled to recognize Heart Health Month, a month when all Americans are encouraged to improve cardiovascular health.

Heart Health and Black History month are not just annual campaigns, they are calls to action: opportunities for us to prioritize our well-being, to celebrate the resilience of the Black community, and to make choices that positively impact our cardiovascular health. Join us as we embark on a journey towards nurturing stronger hearts in the African American community.

Heart disease disproportionately affects Black and other indigenous people of color, yet cardiovascular clinical trials do not fully represent their experiences. Unfortunately, clinical data do not always tell the whole truth.

At the PAIR Center, we are working to address this disparity through the work of the BETTER Center (Behavioral Economics to Transform Trial Enrollment Representativeness). The mission of the BETTER Center is to develop and test behavioral economic (BE) interventions that surmount the barriers to RCT participation faced by disenfranchised racial and ethnic groups, women, persons of low socioeconomic status (SES), and others with or at risk for cardiovascular disease.

Flyer depicting a Black man, with text that reads: "A BETTER approach to diversity in clinical trials. At the PAIR Center, we want the data on cardiovascular disease to tell the whole truth. Black individuals are more likely to have uncontrolled risk factors for cardiovascular disease and to develop cardiovascular disease yet they are substantially underrepresented in cardiovascular RCTs. A review of 143 cardiovascular clinical trials from 2008 and 2017 found just 2.1% of participants were Black."

(Re)Introducing BETTER Center Investigators

As part of our celebration of Black History Month, we are pleased to share an outstanding lineup of virtual speakers from the BETTER Center, supported by the American Heart Association. The BETTER Center is made up of a team of leading clinician scholars from Emory University, Grady Hospital, Medstar Health, and the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Alanna Morris

Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, Emory University

Stepping Up to Achieve Health Equity in Heart Failure
watch a recording of Dr. Morris’S Presentation

Dr. Modele Ogunniyi

Professor of Medicine and Master Physician, Division of Cardiology, Emory University

Disparities in Hypertension: Charting a Path Towards Equitable Outcomes
watch a recording of Dr. OGunniyi’S Presentation
Flyer depicting a Black woman, with text that reads: "(Re)Introducing Better Center Investigators. Talks on cardiovascular health equity from the lens of the African American experience. Dr. Alanna Morris Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, Emory University. Stepping Up to Achieve Health Equity in Heart Failure, September 21, 2022, Running time. 13 minutes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEeWJMlzhd0 Dr. Modele Ogunniyi Professor of Medicine and Master Physician, Division of Cardiology, Emory University. Disparities in Hypertension: Charting a Path Towards Equitable Outcomes, Emory Grand Rounds, May 3, 2022, Running Time. 58 minutes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vFztVaD3HM

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