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Volume 1:
No. 2, April 2004
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Response to S. Leonard Syme’s
Essay
Suggested citation for this article: Roberson R.
Response to S. Leonard Syme's essay [letter to the editor]. Prev Chronic
Dis [serial online] 2004 Apr [date cited]. Available from: URL: http://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2004/
apr/04_0007.htm.
To the Editor:
The essay "Social Determinants of
Health: The Community as an Empowered Partner" by Dr S. Leonard
Syme addresses why, in spite of all the biomedical advances and clinical
interventions, most clinical studies are designed simply to assess disease
and not to assess disease in people, especially those at the bottom of a
social structure.
At the National Institutes of Health (NIH), where I have worked as a
chemist for the last 20 years, it is a time of great expectations,
tremendous growth, and a newfound enthusiasm under a newly proposed NIH
roadmap, which holds the promise of translating basic research discoveries
from bench to bedside. However, in my African American west Baltimore
neighborhood, where I have resided for more than 20 years, that same air of
promise and expectation for healthier lifestyles at the hands of current
biomedical research does not exist. In fact, changing the face of biomedical
research is not high on the list of most people's daily priorities.
Two Saturdays ago, as I was leaving a drug store in my neighborhood, I
was privy to a conversation between two elderly black women, one of whom had
either just picked up or dropped off a prescription. The very brief yet
insightful exchange, in my opinion, sums up the sentiment many African
Americans like myself have about today's health care system and health care
providers. One lady commented to the other, "You know, I have a young
doctor now and he's prescribed this new medication — just experimenting on
me." The other lady responded, "Yes, indeed, that's all they're
doing — just experimenting." This conversation exemplifies the lack of
trust that still exists among African Americans, old as well as young, with
health care and health care research.
To rid our country of the health disparities that still exist, first and
foremost we must regain the trust of people most affected by health care
disparity. Although these ladies may not have a clue about biomedical
research, they realize that in spite of their efforts to establish good
health regimes, widely accepted interventions might not resolve their health
problems. As suggested by Dr Syme, we will achieve this trust only when
researchers realize that people are the most valued resource in biomedical
research and are humble enough to admit it.
Robin Roberson
National Institutes of Health
Bethesda, Maryland
robersor@mail.nih.gov
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