Ruffin Commends HU for Addressing Health Disparities

Ruffin Commends HU for Addressing Health Disparities

Dr. John Ruffin, director of the National Institute for Minority Health and Health Disparities, addresses the audience at the Hampton University Convocation Ceremony.

Dr. Ruffin poses with HU President Dr. William R. Harvey after the ceremony.

Dr. Harvey poses with HU seniors.

HU Senior Class President Misha Lawrence charges her classmates.

At the 68th Annual Hampton University Opening Convocation Ceremony today, Dr. John Ruffin, director of the National Institute for Minority Health and Health Disparities, commended Hampton University for its many programs and initiatives that address health disparities.

Ruffin said the Hampton University Proton Therapy Institute has the ability to change the results of prostate cancer in America. Prostate cancer remains the most common cancer in American men. African-American men continue to have higher prostate cancer prevalence and mortality rates compared to men in other populations. African-American men are 40 percent more likely to have prostate cancer and twice as likely as white men to die of the disease.

“I know of no other university without a medical school with the capability to change the affect of prostate cancer,” Ruffin said. “I will do all that I can to make sure that the proton center you have is not Hampton University’s best kept secret.”

Ruffin also mentioned other HU programs, the Hampton-Penn Center to Reduce Health Disparities and the Minority Health International Research Training, which has taken students to Tanzania, Kenya and Nigeria to study natural products and environmental health.

Ruffin said that while life expectancy in the United States inches up every year “progress in medicine and public health are increasingly uneven.

“The more wealthy you are the healthier you are, and that is true all over the world,” Ruffin said. He went on to explain that access to health care is only part of what causes health disparities. Other factors including the environment, disparities in the workplace, and access to services like stores that sell fresh fruits and vegetables and safe places to play and exercise outdoors also contribute to health disparities.

Ruffin urged the students of all disciplines to become involved in the fight against health disparities by taking advantage of the National Institutes for Health Loan Repayment Program (LRP). LRPs encourage promising researchers and scientists to pursue research careers by repaying up to $35,000 of their qualified student loan debt each year.

“We need to be as interested in health disparities globally as we are in this country,” Ruffin said.

The Hampton University Opening Convocation marks the official beginning of the school year and the first time the graduating seniors don their caps and gowns. HU President Dr. William R. Harvey urged the seniors to make the most of their last undergraduate year and take advantage of all Hampton University has to offer them.

Senior Class President Misha Lawrence also charged her classmates to choose wisely and make good decisions. Lawrence said that once they leave Hampton University and enter the boardrooms, they will stand tall and say, “Hampton made me this way.”

- Yuri Rodgers Milligan