Community Project Funding/Congressionally Directed Spending - Construction - When it comes to health, South Carolina stands out in some very unfortunate ways. The Palmetto State is often referred to as the “buckle of the stroke belt,” and the health disparities—among different racial and ethnic groups, urban and rural residents, poor and affluent South Carolinians—are well documented. For example, South Carolina's Department of Health and Environmental Control and UofSC Alzheimer’s Disease Registry report that Black and Hispanic populations are at greatest risk for developing Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD). This claim might seem to contradict the fact that white patients make up the highest proportion of those living with ADRD in South Carolina. However, these statistics reflect only patients that have been diagnosed, and both Black and Hispanic populations are less likely to receive evaluation services for their symptoms, making them less likely to receive an ADRD diagnosis. Unfortunately, when they are diagnosed, it is at a more advanced stage of disease with greater associated costs. According to the UofSC Alzheimer’s Disease Registry 2021 Annual Report, at ages 65 and older, Black South Carolinians are 64 percent more likely to have ADRD. Health disparities also break along socioeconomic and rural-urban divides. The five S.C. counties with the worst health outcomes—Dillon, Allendale, Marion, Lee and Williamsburg—also are among the poorest, with 22.2 percent of Dillon residents living in poverty, 31.6 percent in Allendale, 21.8 percent in Marion, 23 percent in Lee and 25.4 percent in Williamsburg counties. All five of these counties are at least 60 percent rural. (Sources: University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute 2022 County Health Rankings and SC Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Office Population with Percent in Poverty by County 2020 data.) Creating a biomedical shared instrumentation core will allow for increased collaboration among researchers in the state of South Carolina and will facilitate the development of new methodologies/technologies that can be collectively applied across the biomedical research community. Moreover, the core will encourage increased collaboration with nearby institutions including predominantly undergraduate institutions (PUIs) and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).
