The Penn State College of Medicine has recently unveiled the Center for Advancing Health Equity in Rural and Underserved Communities (CAHE-RUC), a groundbreaking initiative aimed at mitigating health disparities in Pennsylvania’s rural and underserved populations. This center is dedicated to studying and addressing the specific health challenges faced by these communities, with an initial focus on reducing cancer health disparities and improving health literacy regarding cardiovascular health, cancer, and diabetes.
Karen Kim, MD, MS, the dean of Penn State College of Medicine, emphasized the importance of this work, stating, “Health disparities are preventable differences in the burden of disease experienced by populations that are historically and systematically disadvantaged.” The initiative will employ a collective, multisector approach to enhance the health of vulnerable communities across Pennsylvania, which is predominantly rural.
The CAHE-RUC represents a collaborative effort between Penn State College of Medicine and the Asian Health Coalition (AHC), an organization with over 25 years of experience in combating health disparities. Fornessa T. Randal, EdD, the inaugural director of CAHE-RUC, remarked on the initiative’s potential, saying, “Through our multidisciplinary and multimethodological approaches, we are committed to achieving outcomes that benefit the whole person within broad communities.”
Ultimately, CAHE-RUC intends to expand patient-centered health research grounded in precision medicine to effectively address these critical health disparities.
See “Partnership-based center’ to reduce health disparities launches in Hershey” (October 31, 2024)