# Southeast Collaborative for Innovative and Equitable Solutions to Chronic Disease Disparities

> **NIH NIH P50** · VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER · 2022 · $2,474,638

## Abstract

The burden of racial and ethnic health disparities is most evident in the southeastern United States, where
Black and Latino populations suffer the highest rates of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, hypertension,
cancer, and asthma. These chronic conditions are a primary cause of poor health, reduced quality of life, and
premature death, and account for more than 50% of health care expenditures. Despite substantial reduction of
some chronic diseases and risk factors over the last few decades, the Southeast continues to have the highest
number of potentially preventable deaths for each of the five leading causes of death.
 Racial and ethnic minorities comprise 39% of the population of the Southeast (HHS Region IV), which includes
nearly 15 million African Americans and 9 million Latinos. Minorities in the Southeast fare worse on many health
indicators compared to other regions, in large part due to poor socioeconomic status, with more than 22% of
Southeastern residents living in poverty. Effectively addressing pervasive chronic disease disparities will require
interventions that consider the needs, priorities, and lived experiences of those disproportionately impacted.
Research teams with expertise in social, environmental, behavioral, and biological disciplines must collaborate
to develop and test multicomponent strategies aimed at the multilevel determinants that drive disparities.
 Via a new center - the Southeast Collaborative for Innovative and Equitable Solutions to Chronic
Disease Disparities, we will bring together Vanderbilt University Medical Center, University of Miami, and
Meharry Medical College to address to reduce risk factors for and disparities in diabetes, cardiovascular disease,
obesity, and related conditions among African American and Latino populations in the Southeast. We aim to:
Specific Aim 1: Establish the human and technical infrastructure to foster highly collaborative, transdisciplinary
research collaborations focused on using technology and data science to reduce chronic disease disparities
among African American and Latino populations in the southeastern United States.
Specific Aim 2: Facilitate a regional, cross-institutional pilot awards program focused on chronic disease
disparities that nurtures and supports career development, advances use of data science, technology, and
bioinformatics to address the complex drivers of health disparities, and promotes inclusive excellence.
Specific Aim 3: Propel novel health disparities research leveraging technology, individual-level and community-
level social determinants of health data, and genomic and phenotypic data to prevent, treat, and manage
diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity and related conditions in African American and Latino populations.
Specific Aim 4: Partner with African American and Latino communities in the Southeast integrate their priorities
into the Center’s infrastructure, and collaboratively develop, adapt, and test socially and culturall...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10494158
- **Project number:** 5P50MD017347-02
- **Recipient organization:** VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER
- **Principal Investigator:** Nancy J Cox
- **Activity code:** P50 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $2,474,638
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2021-09-24 → 2026-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10494158

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10494158, Southeast Collaborative for Innovative and Equitable Solutions to Chronic Disease Disparities (5P50MD017347-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10494158. Licensed CC0.

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