CHICAGO (AP) — A Chicago community health network has received a nearly $7 million federal grant to build a research center in the impoverished Englewood neighborhood.
Access Community Health says the National
Institutes of Health-funded project will be the first-ever for a
federally-qualified health center network.
Construction is set to begin early next year.
The idea is to take research out of the academic
setting and directly into communities that may benefit. Englewood has high
rates of diabetes, heart disease and cancer. So researchers might seek to
pinpoint problems unique to African-Americans recovering from heart surgery, or
to Hispanics with diabetes.
The group hopes to partner with residents to find
solutions to health disparities — an arrangement that the NIH hopes will be a
model for other underserved communities.
Copyright
2010 The Associated Press.
