The White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (Initiative) has been incorporated as a member of the American Medical Association's Commission to End Health Care Disparities (Commission). Dr. Akshay Desai of St. Petersburg, Florida, will be the Initiative's representative to the AMA Commission. The AMA's Commission to End Health Care Disparities was established in response to the Institute of Medicine's report, "Unequal Treatment," which acknowledged health disparities as resulting from multiple factors, including race and ethnicity.
Dr. Desai, a member of the President's Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI), and Chairman of its Subcommittee on Health, commended the AMA "for recognizing that Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders suffer from high incidence of health disparities and adding the Initiative to its membership so that the concerns of the AAPI community can be discussed and addressed in the solutions being developed."
The President's Advisory Commission on AAPI began addressing the issue of eliminating health disparities within the AAPI community as part of the recommendations made by its report, "Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders Addressing Health Disparities - Opportunities for Building a Healthier America," presented to President George W. Bush in 2003. The report found, among other things, that some subpopulations of Asian and Pacific Islanders are disproportionately at risk from cancer and cardiovascular disease; that AAPI women in the United States, who have the lowest rates of cancer, are however diagnosed at a later stage of cancer; that AAPIs account for over half of the 1.3 million hepatitis B cases and half of the deaths resulting from the infection; that AAPIs have a higher percentage of tuberculosis than all other racial and ethnic groups; and that Asian American seniors are less likely to receive social services and medical care because of language and cultural barriers.
The Commission will collaborate proactively to increase awareness among physicians and health professionals; use evidence-based and other strategies to boost understanding of AAPI health disparities; and devise measures to eliminate disparities and strengthen the health care system. The White House Initiative's participation in the AMA Commission is envisaged to accelerate the process.