The Senate Special Committee on Aging yesterday held a hearing on the COVID-19 pandemic and seniors, which focused on racial health disparities.

Former AHA Board Chair Gene Woods, president and CEO of Atrium Health in Charlotte, N.C., testified about Atrium’s initiatives to address the needs of minority and underserved communities, including the use of geospatial hotspotting to identify zip codes most impacted by COVID-19 and direct needed resources to those areas. 

Woods also noted the benefits of telehealth in reaching underserved communities and advocated for extending its expanded use beyond the pandemic.

Also testifying at the hearing were Dominic Mack, M.D., director of the National Center for Primary Care at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta; Mercedes Carnethon, vice chair of the Department of Preventive Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago; and Rodney Jones Sr., CEO of East Liberty Health Center in Pittsburgh.

Related News Articles

Headline
The Food and Drug Administration yesterday announced that Olympus issued a global recall of its ViziShot 2 FLEX needles manufactured prior to May 12 following…
Headline
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices Sept. 19 recommended that patients should consult their health care provider if they want to receive a COVID-…
Headline
The Department of Health and Human Services Sept. 18 announced it will take new actions to help improve care for individuals with long COVID. They include a…
Headline
The Food and Drug Administration has identified a Class I recall for Mo-Vis BVBA R-net Joysticks due to a firmware error that causes the wheelchair to ignore…
Headline
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is predicting a similar combined number of peak hospitalizations from COVID-19, the flu and respiratory…
Headline
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration today announced a 60-day extension of the comment period on its proposed rule to remove the remaining…