Office of Outreach and Health Disparities - About Us
The Cancer Center has established the Office of Outreach and Health Disparities, or OOHD, to accomplish the following mission:
- Coordinate and integrate outreach activity across our affiliate institutions
- Foster state-of-art care to the underserved Houston community
- Enhance enrollment of under-represented minorities in clinical trials
- Investigate the prevalence and causes of cancer health disparities among underserved populations; and
- Develop effective, research-based solutions to reduce these disparities in the greater Houston community, and across Texas and the nation.
The OOHD is the primary venue for outreach activity supported by the Cancer Center; thus it works closely with the Cancer Prevention and Population Sciences Program to focus on reducing cancer health disparities in the Houston and surrounding areas.
The OOHD, under the direction of Maria L. Jibaja-Weiss, Ed.D. and Luis Rustveld, Ph.D., are actively involved in a broad range of activities that are central to the mission of community outreach and reduction in health disparities. In the coming year, the OOHD will work on the following:
- Strengthening relationships with Baylor College of Medicine’s primary affiliates: Ben Taub General Hospital, Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and Texas Children’s Hospital
- Strengthening the affiliation with the Harris County Hospital District, Community Health Program which administers the Community Health Centers and a network of school-based clinics to ensure that the population they serve receives appropriate cancer prevention/screening education, cancer screening exams, as well as appropriate referral after a cancer diagnosis has been made
- Establishing a network of participating groups by forming a new Advisory Council on Cancer Health Disparities which will provide guidance to the OOHD activities
- Underwriting novel cancer awareness programs in the community