Women, blacks, Medicare recipients less likely to be evaluated for liver transplantation
August 31, 2009
Patient race, gender and insurance status influence decisions about who will go on to receive liver transplants, according to a University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine study. Available online and published in the September issue of the American Journal of Transplantation, the study indicates that women, blacks and patients with Medicare who are in end-stage liver disease are less likely to be referred and evaluated for liver transplantation.
“There currently is no comprehensive oversight of liver disease patients as they go through evaluation, referral and are put on a waitlist for transplantation,” said Cindy L. Bryce, Ph.D., study lead author and associate professor of medicine, University of Pittsburgh. “We know what happens once patients are selected for transplantation since they are closely monitored, but what happens prior to this point is fairly invisible. Ours is the first major study to look at whether everyone with liver-related conditions has a fair shot of being considered for transplantation, and points out that many patients are being excluded from this process.”
The study, which followed 144,507 patients hospitalized in Pennsylvania with liver-related conditions, sought to determine whether any potential barriers exist at the referral and listing steps in the transplantation process. Dr. Bryce and colleagues found that 4,361 of these patients underwent transplant evaluation. Of these, 3,071 were waitlisted and 1,537 went on to transplantation. Patients were significantly less likely to undergo evaluation, waitlisting and eventual transplantation if they were women, black or covered by Medicare.
Disparities were especially apparent in the early stages of the process when evaluation and listing occurs – 61 percent of men were evaluated for transplantation compared to 39 percent of women; 73.8 percent of whites were evaluated compared to 8.6 percent of blacks; and 62 percent of patients with commercial insurance were evaluated compared to 4.7 percent with Medicare only.
“While our study was not designed to identify causes for these disparities, current practices for identifying and referring liver disease patients for transplantation should be made more transparent,” said Dr. Bryce. “Although we face a worsening gap in the supply and demand for organs for liver transplantation, race, gender and insurance status should not be factors that preclude patients from being evaluated for transplantation.”
Black Woman Wins Mayorship in Italian Province
August 31, 2009
Dorothy Rowley, AFRO
- By a slim margin of just 38 votes, a Black woman has become mayor of a small town in northern Italy.
Sandy Cane, 48, won the election earlier this summer and will govern the town of Valceresio, population 5,300, which borders Varesotto and the Swiss confederation of Ticino. She will serve a five-year term.
A member of the anti-immigrant Northern League party, Cane was born in Springfield, Mass., the daughter of an African-American soldier and Italian mother who emigrated to northern France. Described as the voice of Italy’s right-wing party, she said she was happy about the election and that she threw her hat into race out of her love for the city of Viggiu.
African-American male teachers try to be role models
August 31, 2009
Matt Soergel, Florida Times-Union
- At a church service Sunday to honor African-American male teachers, the talk turned to the mentors who had made a difference in the lives of some black educators.
For George Maxey, the new principal at Raines High School, it was John Fox, a white teacher who inspired him in third grade, when Maxey lived in a housing project in Brooklyn, N.Y.
For Julius Paden, principal at private Lighthouse Christian School, it was the late Bernard Wilkes, basketball coach at Ribault High School for 30 years.
For Dwayne Thomas, assistant principal at Mandarin Middle School, it was Bud Hicks, who worked as a custodian at his school in Detroit.
The custodian encouraged Thomas, the son of a single mother, to go to school and keep up his grades. He took him to a Detroit Red Wings game. He nicknamed him “Slick” because he tried to slide out of work.
Recalling How Katrina Made Us Examine Race
August 31, 2009
Nordette Adams, Examiner
- Saturday, August 29, was the 4th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina breaching the levees of city of New Orleans. That catastrophe caused Americans and people all over the world to re-evaluate not only the nation’s readiness for disaster but also its race relations. From media video reports it was obvious that the majority of the people left behind in the city were African-American, and many observers of all races and colors felt the slow response indicated racism in action.
New Orleans is recovering but the city remains a complex gumbo of class, race, and political struggle. Here’s a short list of blog posts and articles that on the 4th anniversary looked back to examine the progress of recovery and potential lessons learned. In particular the following blogs and articles acknowledge not only recovery over the last four years but also touch on the role of race in Katrina’s aftermath.
Naomi Campbell attacks companies for ‘dropping’ black models in recession
August 31, 2009
Richard Eden , UK Telegraph
- The 39-year-old supermodel, who is a close friend of Sarah Brown, the Prime Minister’s wife, claims that major companies are refusing to use non-white women to promote their products.
“This year, we have gone back all the way that we had advanced,” she says. “I don’t see any black woman, or of any other race, in big advertising campaigns.”
Campbell, who was born in London to a mother of Caribbean descent, refers to the publication last year of a special edition of Italian Vogue dedicated to non-white models.
“That made some noise, but, unfortunately, we are the same as before,” she says. “People, in the panic of the recession, don’t dare to put a girl of colour in their campaign, full stop. Nor of any other race. It’s a shame. It’s very sad.”
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