3rd Annual Asheville African American Health Symposium
May 2–May 3, 2025 Planning Medicine Nursing Other
Description
The Asheville African American Health Symposium at MAHEC launched in 2020. According to the January 2020 Healthy North Carolina 2030 Report, there are stark disparities in life expectancy across race, geography, and gender, as well as intersections of these characteristics that show wide gaps between groups. The disparities for African Americans compared to white people are due in part to issues stemming from limited healthcare access, lack of trust in medical professionals, and social and economic factors like racism and unemployment. Racial disparities are unremitting and widespread within the African American population.
The goal of the Asheville African American Health Symposium is to have healthcare providers apply learned evidence-based strategies from African American healthcare leaders across the nation in order to continue improving the health of African Americans. This conference will increase their knowledge and awareness of racism as a healthcare crisis, analyze healthcare disparities affecting our black communities, and examine the cause of these disparities, including implicit bias of providers, historical trauma of African Americans, and lack of diversity within the healthcare workforce.
Target Audience
Healthcare Providers including Internists and Family Practice Physicians; Advanced Practice Providers including PAs, NPs, Nurses, Cardiologists, OB/GYN Physicians/providers, Certified Mid-Wives, Residents, Medical Students, and Health System Administration; Community Health Workers; and Community Members.
Objectives
The participants will:
- Analyze healthcare disparities affecting black communities and examine the causes of these disparities, including implicit bias of providers, historical trauma of African Americans, and lack of diversity within the healthcare workforce
- Recognize and compare the history of the African American race to modern day outcomes and associate the epidemiology of Black American health
- Apply learned evidence-based strategies from African American healthcare leaders across the nation in order to continue improving the health of African Americans
