Friday, June 17 2005 10:40 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Washington: An Indian origin physician has been appointed by the White House as member of a commission that aims to end healthcare disparities among different races that make up the American population.

The White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders has been incorporated as a member of the American Medical Association's (AMA) Commission to End Health Care Disparities. Dr Akshay Desai of St Petersburg, Florida, will be the Initiative's representative to the AMA Commission, it added.

The AMA's Commission to End Health Care Disparities was established in response to the Institute of Medicine's report, "Unequal Treatment," which acknowledged health disparities resulting from multiple factors, including race and ethnicity.

Desai is a member of the President's Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI), and Chairman of its Subcommittee on Health.

He thanked the AMA "for recognising that Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders suffer from high incidence of health disparities and adding the Initiative to its membership so that the concerns of the AAPI community can be discussed and addressed in the solutions being developed".

The press release said that as the Initiative's representative, Desai brings to the Commission's table his experience as a leading geriatrician in Florida and his professional abilities as a founder of the American Family and Geriatric Care in St Petersburg.

Desai is the CEO and President of Universal Health Care, a managed care organization.

The Commission will collaborate to increase awareness among physicians and health professionals; use evidence-based and other strategies to boost understanding of AAPI health disparities; and devise measures to eliminate disparities and strengthen the health care system.

The White House Initiative's participation in the AMA Commission is envisaged to accelerate the process.

The President's Advisory Commission on AAPI began addressing the issue of eliminating health disparities within the AAPI community as part of the recommendations made by its report "Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders Addressing Health Disparities - Opportunities for Building a Healthier America," presented to President George W Bush in 2003.

The report found that some sub-populations of Asian and Pacific Islanders are disproportionately at risk from cancer and cardiovascular disease.

It also showed that AAPI women in the US, who have the lowest rates of cancer, are however diagnosed at a later stage of cancer and that AAPIs account for over half of the 1.3 million hepatitis B cases and half of the deaths resulting from the infection.

The study also concluded that AAPIs have a higher percentage of tuberculosis than all other racial and ethnic groups; and that Asian American seniors are less likely to receive social services and medical care because of language and cultural barriers.