Statistics show that despite the improvements that have been made in recent years, health care disparities remain among minorities in the U.S. Life expectancy and infant mortality are on the rise, but some groups experience more preventable disease, death and disability compared to others. That’s why every April we observe National Minority Health Month by helping to get the word out about gastrointestinal diseases that disproportionately affect minorities.
For years, Capital Digestive Care has been helping to fill the gap in health disparities affecting people in the Washington Metropolitan Area. We recently took part in the HAIR program, as a well as a collaboration with Cigna to improve care and lower costs for colonoscopies. We also led up to National Minority Health Month by launching the website ACancerTooCommon.com, which is dedicated to raising awareness of the growing threat of colon cancer in the African-American community. By reducing health disparities we move closer to the ideal of health equity.