{"id":197636,"date":"2024-05-14T16:15:31","date_gmt":"2024-05-15T02:15:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=197636"},"modified":"2024-05-14T20:58:46","modified_gmt":"2024-05-15T06:58:46","slug":"bridge-health-gaps-aanhpi-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2024\/05\/14\/bridge-health-gaps-aanhpi-community\/","title":{"rendered":"Pharmacy professor aims to bridge health gaps in AANHPI<\/abbr> community"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

\"Deborah<\/p>\n

Professor Deborah Taira is a health economist at the University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at Hilo\u2019s Daniel K. Inouye College of Pharmacy<\/a> and has extensive experience studying health equity issues for Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AANHPI<\/abbr>) communities. The pharmacy practice<\/a> professor conducts in-depth research on health disparities that impact AANHPI<\/abbr> populations and wants to improve access to clinical trials.<\/p>\n

As the country commemorates AANHPI<\/abbr> Heritage Month, the Food and Drug Administration\u2019s Office of Minority Health and Health Equity spotlighted Taira\u2019s expertise in a special podcast<\/a>. She revealed that even though national statistics identify Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> has the highest life expectancy of any state in the U.S., there are still huge health disparities.<\/p>\n

“Unfortunately, Native Hawaiians live about 11 years less than Chinese in Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>,” Taira said. “That\u2019s a huge disparity, and I just feel like that should not exist now, not in our state of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>. And so, I\u2019m passionate about trying to do what I can to correct that.”<\/p>\n

A legacy of research<\/h2>\n

Taira has published more than 100 peer-reviewed manuscripts related to health disparities, cost and health outcomes Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders face. Her interest in studying health disparity started long ago with her mother, a professor of nursing who made house calls in elderly housing projects.<\/p>\n

“I remember she brought me along with her. And she said, ‘You can learn more in 5 minutes when you go into these people\u2019s homes. And you see in their fridge they don\u2019t have any food or the place is filthy or whatever. You learn more about what can help the patient by actually getting to know their life circumstances,’” Taira explained. <\/p>\n

Along with health disparities, Taira\u2019s research also focuses on medication adherence and cost-effectiveness of cardiovascular interventions. She has worked at the Health Institute at the New England Medical Center examining outcomes from the patient perspective and spent 10 years working at Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Medical Service Association analyzing large administrative datasets, including cost and lab data.<\/p>\n

For more go to UH<\/abbr> Hilo Stories<\/em>.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Professor Deborah Taira conducts in-depth research on health disparities that impact Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and wants to improve access to clinical trials. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[52,165,242,50,1579,14,907],"class_list":["post-197636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-college-of-pharmacy","tag-health","tag-native-hawaiian-health","tag-pharmacy","tag-research","tag-uh-hilo","tag-uh-hilo-stories","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t