More than 200 Native American doctors are attending a conference in Portland this week to look at health disparities affecting tribes across the nation.
But the only way doctors and patients and their families will get a really accurate handle on prognosis with current therapies is if a huge prospective study is undertaken or at least a national registry that includes tens of thousands of patients seen at many academic centers and those seen in the community by both cardiologists and general practitioners.
Dr. Roberta G. Williams is a specialist in pediatric cardiology at the USC Keck School of Medicine and Children's Hospital of Los Angeles. Previously, she was the chair of pediatrics at the Keck school and vice president of pediatrics and academic affairs at Childrens Hospital. She earned her B.S. in zoology from Duke University and her medical degree from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She served as director of the echocardiography laboratory and medical director of the cardiothoracic intensive care service at Boston Children's Hospital.
Dr. Herman A. Taylor Jr. is director and principal investigator of the Jackson Heart Study, the largest-ever, population-based study of heart disease and related disorders among African-Americans. In his capacity as director of the Mississippi-based study since 1998, he holds appointments at Jackson State University, Tougaloo College, and the University of Mississippi Medical Center. He also holds the medical center's Aaron Shirley Chair for the Study of Health Disparities.
