Dr Fouad is recognised internationally as a leader in health disparities research and in particular, improving health and preventing disease in minority communities. Dr Fouad, the division director of preventive medicine at UAB, and her team described the outreach work they are doing to promote COVID-19 vaccination in Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities.
They employ patient navigators who are from the communities which they link with. The patient navigators act as champions for the COVID-19 vaccination programme and address some of the myths around it. She explained that historically some of these communities were experimented on, which was responsible for some of the mistrust.
Dr Fouad’s team will also be following people with COVID-19 for a period of 18 months to see how their symptoms change.
She is director of the university’s minority health & health disparities research centre, which generates and disseminates research knowledge from biomedical, behavioural, and social sciences in order to reduce the health disparities experienced by vulnerable populations and disadvantaged communities locally, regionally, and nationally.
Of the 50 states in America, Alabama ranks 46th in obesity, 48th in diabetes, and 49th in high blood pressure. Dr Mona and her team have accepted the challenge to improve these metrics and the lives of the people in Alabama.
Dr Fouad said, “There are lots of opportunities for us to work together and to learn from each other. Thank you for the outstanding work that we’ve learnt about today and we look forward to meeting again soon.”
Professor Iqbal said, ‘‘We welcome the invitation to work in partnership with UAB as MPFT is providing rehabilitation services for COVID patients and we will find the UAB work on the epidemiology of Long COVID of value. Locally we are also exploring ways to improve uptake of the COVID vaccine in BAME communities.’’