Disseminating Health Disparities Education Through Tele-Learning
LaSonya Knowles, Anissa Lewis, Denae King, Lovell Jones
Twenty years of research demonstrate that there
are wide disparities in health throughout
America. Health disparities are differences in
the incidence, prevalence, mortality, and burden
of diseases and other adverse health conditions
that exist when specific population subgroups
are compared. Health Disparities in America:
Working Toward Social Justice is a course
instructed every fall by Dr. Lovell Jones,
director of The Center for Research on Minority
Health (CRMH) at UT M.D. Anderson Cancer
Center. The CRMH has created a course that
examines the social and societal factors that are
fundamental in creating disparities in health.
Students from 10 different academic programs
and institutions participate in this course. The
course is unique in the aspect that various,
diverse speakers whom are experts in their field
of study instruct each class. This health
disparities course is conducted at one of three
different academic institutions in the Houston
area and broadcast via satellite to various
academic institutions by means of teleeducation.
Tele-education is defined as a mode
of instruction utilizing different forms of media
such as video, audio technology tools and
computers. Video and audio technologies
involve the transmission of interface between
learners and instructors, either interactive or
non-interactive. Tele-education technologies
have an important role to play in addressing the
dissemination of health disparities education.
The purpose of this program is to determine the
feasibility of tele-education as a mode of
instruction to introduce the multi-disciplinary
components of health disparities. Our findings
suggest that tele-education is a useful tool in
imparting health disparities education. Full Text
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