@umassmed magazine Summer 2021

Community-driven, community-responsive Grassroots collaborations confront disparities illuminated by pandemic

By Sandra Gray

D

ramatic health disparities

are not new or limited to COVID-19, but the pandemic has illuminated longstanding gaps in health status and health care stratified by race and ethnicity.

“We knew before the pandemic that health disparities exist and these disparities disproportionately affect the overall health and lifespans of Black, brown, indigenous and immigrant populations,” said Matilde Castiel, MD, associate professor of medicine and commissioner of health and human services for the City of Worcester. “We were aware that families in our city’s Black, Latino and immigrant communities were most likely to contract the virus because they had less opportunity to socially distance, quarantine or work from home.”

UMass Medical School purposefully instills in the health care providers and scientists it trains the means to understand and proactively address the socioeconomic factors that underly health disparities. During the pandemic, the Medical School played a significant role in grassroots initiatives created by the city, community organizations and advocates to help those most affected by COVID-19.

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Collaborations initially included engaging Black and Latino communities in vaccine clinical trials and addressing lack of confidence about getting vaccinated through community conversations and town halls. Building upon these collaborations and fostering more community-engaged research, service-learning programs and curriculum focused on health disparities and health equity will remain a focus long after the pandemic ends.

“We want our community to know that we’re here and available to help,” said Ché Anderson, who in 2020 joined UMass Medical School as assistant vice chancellor for city and community relations after nearly seven years with the City of Worcester, most recently as deputy cultural officer. “We look forward to assisting. We want to be active partners.”

Expanding representation and participation in clinical trials

In the fall of 2020, UMass Medical School reached out to diverse communities in Worcester to recruit volunteers for a clinical trial of the PfizerBioNTech vaccine under the leadership of Robert Finberg, MD, distinguished professor of medicine, who has served as principal investigator on more than half a dozen clinical trials related to COVID-19. Dr. Finberg is a member of Gov. Charlie Baker’s COVID-19 Vaccine Advisory Group, which has emphasized equity in COVID-19 vaccination efforts.