The San Antonio Life Sciences Institute Distinguished Health Disparities Lecture Series will be coordinated by the Institute for Health Promotion Research, directed by Amelie G. Ramirez, Dr.P.H.
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Contact: Elizabeth Allen, 210-450-2020

SAN ANTONIO (Oct. 15, 2010) — The UT Health Science Center San Antonio and UT San Antonio are teaming up to launch the San Antonio Life Sciences Institute (SALSI) Distinguished Health Disparities Lecture Series. The series will periodically bring some of the top U.S. health disparities experts to San Antonio to offer the latest trends, tools and advancements in the fight against cancer health disparities among the underserved.

The series starts on Wednesday, Oct. 20, and will continue until August 2011.

Earlier in October at a different event, legislators and researchers heard a progress report on SALSI, including its 172 percent return on investment, over its five-year history.

Related link: SALSI showcases ongoing projects at five-year anniversary meeting

The SALSI-funded speaker series will feature presenters who can enhance the knowledge and abilities of local doctors and researchers, who then can apply learned techniques and strategies in their labs, clinics and communities to address disparities in South Texas.

Health disparities
South Texas residents, particularly Hispanics/Latinos, experience many health disparities — the disproportionately higher incidence and mortality of certain conditions, compared to whites.

“Given this region’s unequal burden of obesity, chronic disease and cancer, this SALSI lecture series will feature outstanding health disparities experts from across the U.S. in order to expose our local physicians and researchers to novel methods of addressing health disparities in our region,” said Amelie G. Ramirez, Dr.P.H., a disparities researcher and director of the Institute for Health Promotion Research (IHPR) at the Health Science Center.

The IHPR is coordinating the series with funding from SALSI and help from UTSA.

SALSI's history
SALSI was approved by state lawmakers in 2001 in coordination with The University of Texas System Board of Regents to build and strengthen collaboration between the Health Science Center and UTSA. SALSI in 2009 received its first funding from the Legislature — an $8 million, two-year award — for projects and programs to enhance research, teaching and service.

Rena Pasick, Dr.P.H., a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, is the first speaker in the series.

Dr. Rena Pasick to present first lecture
The first lecture in the new series, set for Oct. 20, features Rena Pasick, Dr.P.H., a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. It will be held at 4 p.m. in the Greehey Children’s Cancer Research Institute, 8403 Floyd Curl Drive.

Dr. Pasick, a well-established population-based cancer control researcher, conducts community- and clinic-based intervention studies to increase the use of and access to breast and cervical cancer screening among ethnically diverse and underserved communities. She also developed a training program to encourage minority students and professionals to pursue doctoral degrees in cancer research.

Dr. Pasick’s research indicates that, along with objective physical data, research methods need to be used that record social context, such as a person’s ethnic, socio-economic and educational backgrounds and subjective social experience.

Dr. Braveman to be featured in January
The next speaker in the series will be Dr. Paula Braveman, director of the Center on Social Disparities in Health at the University of California, San Francisco. Her lecture, The Social Determinants of Health: Relevance to Cancer Disparities, will take place Jan. 27.

“We’re recruiting some of the most well-respected names in health disparities research,” said Dr. Ramirez, who also is the associate director of health disparities at the Cancer Therapy & Research Center, the National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Center at the UT Health Science Center. “We’re hoping these speakers spark new research and clinical collaborations across the South Texas region that can reduce health disparities.”

Both the CTRC and the IHPR are in the Health Science Center School of Medicine.

Future lectures are expected to be featured live online, as well as recorded and published online. For more information, visit the IHPR’s webpage at http://ihpr.uthscsa.edu.

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The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, one of the country’s leading health sciences universities, ranks in the top 3 percent of all institutions worldwide receiving National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding. Research and other sponsored program activity totaled a record $259 million in fiscal year 2009. The university’s schools of medicine, nursing, dentistry, health professions and graduate biomedical sciences have produced approximately 26,000 graduates. The $739 million operating budget supports eight campuses in San Antonio, Laredo, Harlingen and Edinburg. For more information on the many ways “We make lives better®,” visit www.uthscsa.edu.


The University of Texas at San Antonio is one of the fastest growing higher education institutions in Texas and one of nine academic universities and six health institutions in the UT System. As a multicultural institution, UTSA aims to be a national research university providing access to educational excellence and preparing citizen leaders for the global environment.

UTSA serves more than 30,300 students in 65 bachelor’s, 49 master’s and 21 doctoral degree programs in the colleges of Architecture, Business, Education and Human Development, Engineering, Honors, Liberal and Fine Arts, Public Policy, Sciences and Graduate School. Founded in 1969, UTSA is an intellectual and creative resource center and a socioeconomic development catalyst for Texas and beyond. More information online at www.utsa.edu/today.

The Institute for Health Promotion Research (IHPR) investigates the causes and solutions to the unequal impact of cancer and chronic disease among Latinos in San Antonio, South Texas and the nation. The IHPR, founded in 2006, is based at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio with a satellite office in Harlingen, Texas. The IHPR uses evidence-guided research, training and community outreach to improve the health of those at a disadvantage due to race/ethnicity or social determinants. Visit the IHPR online at http://ihpr.uthscsa.edu.