Howard University and several development partners will begin construction in 2023 on a new center dedicated to researching health disparities, school officials announced Thursday.
The aim of the National Research Center for Health Disparities — which will be next to the school’s college of medicine — is to attract pharmaceutical companies and biomedical research organizations that are focused on treating chronic illnesses, especially those that affect communities of color. The project, which will take up 260,000 square feet, will include a laboratory and an office building.
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“Howard has a long history of training problem solvers who are prepared to meet and combat the world’s most significant obstacles,” Howard President Wayne A.I. Frederick said in a news release. He said the center will support the school’s strategic plan “by expanding our reach and creating a community where the world’s best minds, thought leaders and scientists can collaborate in one place to solve historic and contemporary health challenges.”
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The announcement comes as the coronavirus pandemic has shed a light on and exacerbated existing health disparities, especially those between racial groups. In the District, for example, Black people make up 46 percent of the population but have accounted for 51 percent of the city’s positive coronavirus tests and 76 percent of total lives lost to covid-19. And racial disparities in vaccine uptake have emerged, especially among young people.
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Health experts point to a number of causes, including the prevalence of chronic illness in communities of color, increased exposure to the virus through front-line jobs, and mistrust of the health-care system because of both historical and present mistreatment in the medical establishment.
Having a research center post-covid would be helpful in “setting the direction we need to go in terms of addressing these health disparities,” said Ambrose Lane Jr., founder and chair of the Health Alliance Network in D.C. and a co-founder of the Black Coalition Against Covid.
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The National Research Center for Health Disparities will be privately developed and funded, and Howard has already selected a team of private real estate development firms to build the center. The project will also include 430 rental apartments for researchers, faculty, graduate students and the general public, the university said.
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An African American controlled development firm will own a significant stake in the project, according to the news release. Howard also plans to work with a “diverse” group of contractors and consultants for the planning, design, and construction of the project.
“We continually push the envelope with innovative product development and by creating deal structuring to optimize value to Howard University,” Anthony Freeman, the university’s real estate executive, said in the news release. “Howard is proud to work with a team of highly qualified developers to realize this transformative vision.”
Lane hopes that the center will connect with scholars who have been researching health disparities for a while but maybe haven’t had the funding to get attention for their work. He said now is the time to move from research to real policy change.
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“One thing that I think is positive is that it’s being done by a Black institution,” Lane said. “I’m glad that Howard is at least taking charge in this regard and maybe some of this research will move some legislation and move some policy.”
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For their part, city officials say they are hyperfocused on equity in their policies aimed at improving its health system post-pandemic, according to a July report from D.C. Health.
“The challenges, experiences and disparate outcomes of the pandemic in the District, has, if nothing else, underscored the necessity to apply an equity informed, structural analysis to our work going forward,” D.C. Health Director LaQuandra S. Nesbitt said in a July news release on the report.
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The city does not want to “return to the ‘pre-pandemic’ normal, but to apply lessons that we are continuing to learn and increase public health capacity to meet our vision of D.C. being the healthiest city in America,” Nesbitt said.
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The National Research Center for Health Equity might aid in that pursuit. The center will be located at the northwest corner of Georgia Avenue and Bryant Street NW.
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