Racial and ethnic minorities bear a disproportionate burden of disease, injury, premature death and disability in the U.S. The CDC reports that race and ethnicity correlate with persistent health disparities. Additionally, these vulnerable populations are less likely to be able to afford health insurance and thus their access to the health care system is severely limited.

These same dynamics are at work right here in Nassau County. In communities like Freeport, New Cassel, Hempstead and others. Among the medically underserved population of these communities, infant death rates have been more than double that in the rest of the county since 1980. Diabetes strikes at 1.5 times the Nassau County average. And HIV/AIDS destroys lives and families at an astounding rate 4 times greater than the rest of the county. And with an average household income 22% lower in these communities, access to health insurance and health care providers is limited at best.

Low birth weight babies, lead poisoning, chlamydia and gonorrhea infections, childhood asthma, even cancer. These and myriad other conditions continue to plague the medically underserved populations in at least 7 distinct communities at a disproportionately higher rate than the rest of Nassau County. As the safety net provider for these communities and to define the need and address these disparities Nassau University Medical Center (NUMC) has created The Institute for Healthcare Disparities.