Journal of health care for the poor and underserved
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J Health Care Poor Underserved · Jan 1993
Review Historical ArticleThe African-American cancer crisis, Part II: A prescription.
To appreciate the causes of the African-American cancer crisis, contemporary myths and perceptual gaps regarding cancer in blacks must be analyzed and placed in historical context. Since ancient times, racism has permeated western scientific, medical, and social cultures. Yet contemporary analysts typically frame a 370-year-old African-American health deficit in nonracial terms, and ignore both the metamorphosis of racism and the impact of racism on the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer; exposure to cancer-causing industrial pollutants; educational opportunities for black health professionals and policymakers, and other factors. If the African-American cancer crisis is to be halted, the growing divergence between urgent needs and meager resources devoted to preventing, detecting, and treating cancer in blacks must be sharply reversed.
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One point which has emerged with a resounding voice during this conference is the need to clearly assemble and carefully communicate data and information as a means of empowerment. We hope that the recommendations from this conference will contribute to this end. We urge all to become actively involved in seeking change, and ensuring that the future health of Americans and of our nation will not reflect our inequitable, costly present.
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J Health Care Poor Underserved · Jan 1991
Decreasing the field strength of the National Health Service Corps: will access to care suffer?
To study the effect that the decline in physicians in the National Health Service Corps (NHSC) pipeline will have on access to care for patients at sites to which NHSC physicians are assigned, a survey was sent to all NHSC physicians completing their obligated service in 1989. Seventy-four (74) percent of the respondents believed that the decreased number of NHSC doctors in the pipeline would threaten the existence of their site and 52 percent reported that no doctors or clinic sites would be able to provide free or subsidized care if their NHSC site were forced to close. Of the physicians who stated that their NHSC patients would be able to find an alternative source of care, the most commonly cited (33 percent) alternative was the local hospital emergency room. We conclude that access to care for patients at NHSC sites will be seriously impaired by the decline in physicians in the NHSC pipeline.