Health Science Center graduate, Eduardo J. Sanchez, M.D., Texas commissioner of health, recently received the Louis B. Russell Jr. Memorial Award from the American Heart Association (AHA).
The AHA presents the award each year to volunteers who have rendered outstanding service to minority and underserved populations. The award is named after Louis J. Russell Jr., a 1968 heart transplant patient who helped spread the message about heart disease prevention in the minority community until his death in 1974.
Dr. Sanchez, as board member of the AHA’s Austin /Capital Area Division, founded the Hispanics and Heart Disease Outreach Task Force to eliminate barriers and increase access to healthcare. The task force then created the Hispanic Health Festival that provides free health screenings and risk assessments to more than 14,000 people a year.
Dr. Sanchez, as health commissioner, has led the Texas Department of Health in conducting a feasibility study on placing automated external defibrillators (AED) in state buildings and in the last legislative session helped the AHA in securing state funding for AED placement. Dr. Sanchez has also made obesity and type 2 diabetes among minorities his prime public health issue.
