Be Healthy
New section aims to end racial and ethnic health disparities

The Bay State Banner unveiled this week a new monthly publication aimed at reducing racial and ethnic disparities in health care.

The new publication is called Be Healthy and is produced in collaboration with the Boston Public Health Commission, Partners HealthCare, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts.

The publication is partly the result of Boston Mayor Thomas Menino’s efforts to make ending health care disparities a major policy initiative of his administration. Starting with a task force he convened in 2003, Mayor Menino has made Boston a national leader in this field. Last year, the Mayor’s Disparities Task Force released a comprehensive blueprint and $1 million in support of programs aimed at eliminating disparities in health and health care.

“This is exactly what I’d hoped for when we began the Disparities Project — that highly influential community organizations like The Bay State Banner would join forces with Boston’s extraordinary healthcare community and use their talent and influence to help Bostonians of color get access to health information and health care,” Mayor Menino said.  “What the Banner, these hospitals, and this insurer can do on their own to eliminate health disparities is great, but what they can do together is much greater.”

Mayor Menino restated his goals and challenged health care executives and community leaders gathered Tuesday at the Whittier Street Community Health Center to continue the fight.

“Let’s make a move in our city and try to equalize the playing field in health care,” Mayor Menino said.

Though the Bay State Banner has played a social advocacy role throughout its 40-year history, the Be Healthy publication is the first time the weekly newspaper has been involved in a sustained campaign to improve the health of its nearly 100,000 readers.

“The goal of Be Healthy is to let our readers know that by being informed, active participants in their own health care, they can live healthier lives and reduce the risks of disease that are all too common in our community,” said Melvin Miller, the Bay State Banner publisher.

Be Healthy is a year-long print and on-line campaign that provides monthly information on a variety of health topics that are linked with racial disparities in health including: prostate cancer, cardiovascular disease, women’s cancers, asthma, stroke and diabetes. Be Healthy also includes information on prevention, community screenings, Q&A’s with physicians and other medical advice.

The first Be Healthy appears in today’s edition of The Bay State Banner and will focus on men’s health, including information on the importance of good primary care, prostate health, preventing heart disease and upcoming health screenings.

“I am proud to be in a city brave enough to tackle the issues of health disparities,” said Dr. James Monogan, president and CEO of Partners HealthCare. “We have a real commitment to the people of this city to make difference.”

That commitment is more than empty rhetoric. Partners has earmarked $6 million to identify and solve disparities in health.

In a startling 2005 report, the Boston Public Health Commission revealed that Boston’s racial and ethnic groups, which make up more than half of the city’s population, have strikingly different risks of illness than whites and higher mortality rates from cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and other diseases. Black Bostonians have worse health than all other residents on pre-term birth, overweight, diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, hospitalization rates, cancer mortality and premature death from a variety of conditions.

Peter Meade, Executive Vice President of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, said providing more information is vital to closing the gap.

“The articles in Be Healthy will give patients access to information that enables them to make better choices about their care. BCBSMA believes that armed with more — and better — information, readers can work with their doctors to improve their health and the health of their families,” Meade said during the news conference. “That’s why BCBSMA offers diverse cultural training to the doctors who care for our members, provides on-line tools that compare care at various hospitals and delivers member services assistance in multiple languages.”

State Senator Dianne Wilkerson has long championed the need to improve health care for minorities and also attended the news conference.

“I want to die of old age and the only way that is going to happen is through partnerships such as this,” Wilkerson said of the Be Healthy section.

For more information, see The Bay State Banner’s website at www.bannerbehealthy.com.