Future of Health Care 2020

Health-Care Equity
Sponsored
by
DOC ON A
MISSION
Dr. Willie Underwood III was hired
this January as executive director
of the Buffalo Center for Health
Equity. He says the time has come
for a focused regional effort on
the disproportionate health issues
that plague the city’s East Side.
JOED VIERA
DR. WILLIE UNDERWOOD III HAS WORKED ON ISSUES OF
HEALTH EQUITY HIS WHOLE CAREER. HE’S JUST GETTING STARTED
Q & A
More than 300 people were in attendance at the University
at Buffalo’s Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical
Sciences in August 2019.
The gathering was for the African-American Health
Equity Task Force’s second annual Igniting Hope conference,
with the theme “Building a Culture of Health
and Ending African-American Health Disparities.”
Officials for Erie County Medical Center Corp. used the occasion
to announce a $372,000 grant for a new initiative, the Buffalo Center
for Health Equity, which focuses specifically on health issues affecting
residents of Buffalo’s East Side.
Five months later, a Buffalo doctor was chosen as leader of the
new program. Dr. Willie Underwood III is a urologist, biotech entrepreneur
and member of the board of trustees of the American Medical
Association.
Underwood has spent his career on issues of health disparities and
policies. He is a past board member of HealthNow New York Inc., the
Love Canal Medical Fund, the Medical Society of the County of Erie
and the National Medical Association Commission to End Health Care
Disparities, among other posts.
Founded in 2015, the African-American Health Equity Task Force
is specifically focused on identifying racial and ethnic health disparities
in Buffalo and enacting policy changes and community-level
solutions.
The task force works closely with the newly formed University at
Buffalo Community Health Equity Research Institute.
SEE UNDERWOOD, PAGE 32
MAY 15, 2020 THE FUTURE OF HEALTH CARE 31