U.S.-Mexico Border Health Symposia to Begin This Week
The first Bi-National U.S.-Mexico Symposium on Border Health Research, one of four scheduled meetings that aim to "develop and increase health research capacity" along the U.S.-Mexico border, begins Dec. 7. The meetings are sponsored by the Hispanic-Serving Health Professions Schools Inc., an organization representing 21 U.S. medical schools and three public health schools, and will take place at Texas Tech University Health Science Center Medical School in El Paso, Texas. Participants will include federal and state officials, border health officers and medical and public health school faculty from both countries. According to HSHPS, health demographics in the border region -- composed of about 11 million residents and 2,000 miles -- are comparable to those "of a developing third world country" because of communicable and chronic diseases, "trauma and environmental degradation." Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas), chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, who will open the meeting, said in a statement, "We need to find ways of increasing the availability of quality medical service and personnel to meet the new demands that we face as a country. We need to invest in medical research and technology and to bring this technology to areas of our country that have dire need" (HSHPS release, 12/4).