Harvard/MGH Center on Genomics, Vulnerable Populations, and Health Disparities

For decades, researchers studying health and health care disparities in certain racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, gender or sexual orientation groups have found that many of these populations have a higher risk of chronic diseases and poorer outcomes than others.

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“Today we have approximately 67,000 excess deaths among African-Americans every year, for example,” said Alexandra Shields, HMS associate professor of medicine and co-director of the Harvard/Massachusetts General Hospital Center on Genomics, Vulnerable Populations and Health Disparities, at a recent Harvard Medical School symposium on the topic.