I've always noticed disparities. I grew up in Liberia, West Africa, where I was very much aware of how good my health and quality of life were, the daughter of highly educated professionals. Many children I saw on the streets of Monrovia were not so fortunate. Then many years later during my residency in Baltimore, I was seeing the same issues. I saw how opportunities to be healthy depended on how much money patients had and which neighborhood they lived in. These patients and their doctors weren't understanding one another, and it often led to compromised diagnosis and treatment.
I became determined to make a difference—not only by being a good clinician, but by trying to better understand the problems of underserved populations. I've devoted my career to the study and elimination of health disparities.
During my career I have been fortunate to be supported by both government and private funding.
In 2010, I received an NIH grant that led to the creation of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity, where we work to address health disparities in communities marginalized due to race, ethnicity, and income.
While the health status for Americans as a whole has improved over the last century, not all Americans have the same opportunities to be as healthy. In America, health disparities by race and income touch every condition, health care setting, and geography. They contribute to significant costs to society because of health care costs and lost productivity due to premature deaths. More than 265 Black people die every day for reasons linked to racial health disparities, something Harvard public health scholar David R. Williams has compared to a jumbo jet crashing every day.
I co-lead an NIH-supported project supporting the Mid-Atlantic Center for Cardiometabolic Health Equity where intervention trials at Hopkins seek to assess and improve patient outcomes in chronic conditions such as hypertension, chronic kidney disease, diabetes, and post-partum weight retention. The grant supports meaningful community engagement and the training and mentoring of early-stage investigators.
Our research is now at risk due to the potential loss of NIH support. We could try to replace the NIH funding with donations from private foundations, philanthropy, and corporations, but none of them have the vast resources of the federal government. And being blunt: The health of the American people should be one of the highest priorities of government.
Without NIH support, research participants from underserved groups will lose access to health-enhancing programs; people will get sicker; the next generation of scientists will see opportunities evaporate and may abandon careers in science and public health altogether.
Our entire society will become less healthy, less productive, less innovative, and less competitive in the global economy.
I believe that everyone deserves the chance to live a healthy life. That's why I've dedicated my life to research exploring how we can give all Americans a chance to do so. It's hard to put into words how heartbreaking it is to contemplate the possibility of losing work that saves so many lives.
Lisa Cooper is the James F. Fries Professor of Medicine and a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor at Johns Hopkins University, and founding director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity.
