Physician, health care advocate addresses disparities: 10/26

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Physician, health care advocate addresses disparities

by Cindy Abole
Public Relations

Veteran, family medicine physician and health care advocate Jeannette E. South-Paul, M.D., is passionate about diversity issues and addressing health care disparities.

South-Paul was an invited guest to MUSC on Sept. 24, meeting with faculty and staff from the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. She also addressed a larger campus crowd as part of the College of Medicine Diversity Committee and the Academy of Medical Educators and Faculty Affairs' guest speaker.

Dr.
South-Paul University of Pittsburgh's Dr. Jeannette South-Paul chats with the College of Medicine's Dr. Deborah Deas, right, and Department of Family Medicine's Dr. Wanda Gonsalves, following her Sept. 24 faculty presentation held at the Drug Discovery Building auditorium.

South-Paul, who is the Andrew W. Mathieson Professor and chair of the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, shared her perspectives about America's current health care status and health care reform. She also emphasized how reform can reduce inequities, lower costs and improve overall medical care for everyone. South-Paul believes that strengthening primary care services will achieve better health outcomes, improve quality patient experiences and provide an efficient use of resources through the presence of a primary care physician.

According to research studies, adults with a primary care physician, rather than a specialist, have 33 percent lower costs of care and are 19 percent less likely to die. In the U.S., an increase of just one primary care physician is attributed to 1.44 fewer deaths per 10,000 persons.

According to South-Paul, about 50 percent of people diagnosed with chronic illness have multiple conditions and suffer from deficiencies in the management of their disease such as diabetes, depression, heart disease, asthma and other diagnoses. She introduced the benefits of a chronic care model that's integrative and involves patients, physicians and the health system.

To support this model, South-Paul is a proponent of community health centers and patient-centered medical homes to provide comprehensive health care services, especially among vulnerable populations.

She also emphasized the diversity of teams within academic health centers. At MUSC and other academic health centers and clinical organizations, it is the role of health educators to prepare health care professionals and provide services to meet the needs of a diverse patient population, especially the underserved and disabled.

"Mostly, we want to develop professionals that can provide care and improve the health care experiences for all patients," she said.

A native of Philadelphia, South-Paul is also the first African-American and first woman to hold her post among medical schools across the nation.

Prior to joining the University of Pittsburgh in 2001, she served as a family physician in the U.S. Army for 22 years and was chair of the Department of Family Medicine in the Uniformed Services University of the Health Services. She is an active practitioner maintaining a family medicine practice at the UPMC Matilda Theiss Clinic.

Friday, Oct. 26, 2012

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