HBCU Eradicating Economic and Health Disparities (HEEHD) 2019 Conference - Project Summary
The United States (U.S.) has one of the largest income-based health disparities in the world with poor people,
in the U.S, more likely than wealthy people not to have access to care because of cost, and more likely to report
being dissatisfied with their last visit to the doctor. Moreover, many minority populations (e.g., African
Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans) suffer co-morbidities including, but not limited to, asthma,
diabetes, and heart disease. Addressing health disparities is significant not only from a social justice
standpoint, but also for improving the health of all Americans by achieving improvements in overall quality of
care and population health. Moreover, health disparities amount to approximately $93 billion in excess
medical care costs and $42 billion in lost productivity per year as well as economic losses due to premature
deaths. To address health disparities, Historical Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU)s have potential to
deliver a measurably effective intervention to develop sustainable biomedical & information technology related
inventions that create intellectual property (i.e., copyright, patents, and trade-secret) for HBCUs around which
students and faculty may develop products and services to generate technology transfer license revenue for
HBCUs and continue developing solutions to eradicate U.S. health disparities. However, funding innovations
is continuously a challenge. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant programs, like the Small Business
Technology Transfer (STTR) program, provide opportunities for HBCUs to collaborate with small business (SB)
to develop innovations that address health disparities. This program awarded three-quarters of a billion dollars
in 2015 to help business translate biomedical discoveries into products. However, for minority African-
American businesses, the SBIR program award funding was 0.7%; 1.7% for Hispanic-owned businesses; and 0%
to Native American.
To address the aforementioned problems, Juxtopia and its team will organize the 1st Annual HBCU
Eradicate Economic and Health Disparities (HEEHD) 2019 Conference. The HEEHD 2019 conference will
invite peer reviewed empirical research, from HBCUs focused on techniques & methods that effectively facilitate
innovative research and development; technology transfer; and resulting product/service commercialization to
address health disparities in minority populations.
To accomplish this NIH R13 effort, the Juxtopia® team will accomplish the following three specific aims:
A. Analyze Barriers preventing HBCUs from securing significant funding awards or translating research.
B. Facilitate Scientific Discussion to devise effective methods for improving Biomedical Research.
C. Facilitate Policy Discussions w/ federal & state governments, industry, & organizations on how HBCUs
can effectively apply their HEEHD training to address health disparities.
