Thomas LaVeist, PhD

Research, Author, Public Speaker, Dad

Home
Books
Most Requested
Q&A with Dr. LaVeist
Media Room

Q&A with Thomas LaVeist

1) What is the ethnic demographic transition?

Over the past few decades United States has undergone the revolutionary changes in the ethnic makeup of the country.  United States is becoming a minority-majority. By the middle of the 21st-century the ethnic groups that we now call minorities will comprise the majority of the nations population.  Similar patterns can be seen throughout Western Europe as well.

 

2) Why do you think the ethnic demographic transition will be so important to the healthcare industry?

Because of health disparities.  It is in the healthcare system that we see a microcosm of the social economic and cultural phenomena that exists within society. We now know that there are substantial disparities in the access to quality care and health outcomes along ethnic groups.  As the nation becomes a minority-majority these disparities will be magnified and their impact on the economy will be great.

 

3) What are examples of health disparities?

While there are many examples, but here are a few:

  • The infant mortality rate for African Americans is double the rate for white Americans, and nearly three times the rate for Asian Americans,
  • The death rate from cirrhosis of the liver among American Indians is about three times greater than the rate for white Americans, and nearly four times greater than the rate for Asian Americans,
  • Latinos/Hispanics comprise about 13% of the US population, were more than 18% of all HIV/AIDS cases in the country.

 

4) You have written books on all the topics also, can you tell me about that?

That I have written two books on higher education African-Americans. The first book is titled “the Guide to Colleges for African Americans,” that book was published by Stanley Kaplan/Simon and Schuster. The other book is titled “8 Steps to help Black families pay for college,” published by Princeton Review/Random House. That book was co-authored by my brother Wil LaVeist, who is a columnist for the Daily Press, a Tribune Newspaper in Hampton, Virginia. Radio personality Tom Joyner wrote the following for that book, and a portion of the proceeds goes to the Tom Joyner foundation, the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, and LincolnUniversity. Also I conduct the research for the Black Enterprise Magazine list of the top 50 colleges for African Americans.  As an educator I am very concerned about the low rates of college attendance among African Americans and other minority groups as well.

Click here if you have a question:

Selected Engagements

·  National Association for the Advancement of Colored People – National Convention

· National Urban League - National Convention

· Congressional Black Caucus Legislative Weekend

·  American Sociological Association – National Convention

· Association of Health Services Researcher – National Convention

·  Academy Health – National Convention

· Gerontological Society of America

·  Baltimore City Health Department 200th Anniversary Conference

· American Public Health Association – National Convention

·  Kaiser Family Foundation

·  South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control

·  Association of Black Sociologists

 

Legislative Testimony/ Federal Government Venues

· Congress of the United States – Briefing on Hurricane Katrina, health and social justice, Washington, DC; 23 September 2005

·  Congress of the United States – Briefing on health disparities, Washington, DC; 9 September 2005

· Congress of the United States - A Hearing on Innovations in Health Disparity Research, @ Washington, DC; 27 March 2003

· Congress of the United States - A Hearing on the Status and Progress of the Department of Health and Human Services Initiative to Eliminate Racial and Ethnic Disparities, @ Washington, DC; 12 April 2002

·  Congress of the United States, House of Representatives, Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources, A Hearing on Racial Disparities in Healthcare: Confronting Unequal Treatment, @ Washington, DC; 21 May 2002

· United States President = s Cancer Panel, Bethesda, MD

·  United States President's Cancer Panel, Salt Lake City, UT

·  Delivered testimony on behalf of the African American Health Policy Leaders to the Joint Expenditure Study Group on Health, Housing, Economic Development and the Environment, Maryland State Legislature, 1991

 

University Lectures

Baylor University
Carnegie Mellon University

Coppin StateUniversity

Harvard University
Morgan State University

Ohio State University

Rutgers University

Shaw University

Syracuse University
 University of Chicago

University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey

University of Michigan
University of North Carolina
 University of Pennsylvania University of Pittsburgh
 University of South Carolina
University of Virginia
Wayne State University

Yale University

Copyright 2005 Thomas LaVeist. All rights reserved.