Humza Anwar: "Creating a Novel Healthcare Delivery Model to Address Social and Health Disparities in Lexington, Kentucky"
I enjoy the Learning Lab because it's a great environment for collaborative discussion and doing important research.
-Humza Anwar
Humza Anwar is a Sophmore majoring in Biology and has been admitted to the Early Admission Program for the UK Medical School. He is from Lexington, Kentucky, and plans to become a doctor.
Given Humza's interest in medicine and his concerns for the availability of healthcare, it is no surprise that his research project focuses on the development of a novel healthcare model addressing healthcare inequality in the city of Lexington. There are many factors that lead indigent and minority populations to poorer health outcomes, and he is looking to better understand how to solve these issues by looking into the past. Humza used the unprocessed records from the Hunter Foundation for Health Care records at the University of Kentucky Special Collections Research center as a valuable roadmap to better understand how the Hunter Foundation approached minimizing healthcare disparities in the 1970s. The Hunter Foundation created a clinic, provided outreach, and offered a valuable lifeline to the poor and uninsured in some of the poorest neighborhoods in Lexington. Humza's research explores how those neighborhoods have shifted since the Hunter Foundation was created and how to approach heathcare in a post-pandemic reality. The findings of his project will help to better provide equitable healthcare delivery to poor and minority citizens in Lexington.
You can watch Humza's 5 minute video for NCUR here.
Poster presented at the National Conference of Undergraduate Research, 14 April 2021:
Research abstract:
Creating a Novel Healthcare Delivery Model to Address Social and Health Disparities in Lexington, Kentucky
The contemporary Coronavirus pandemic has exposed vulnerabilities in the American healthcare system, particularly as it relates to minorities and indigent populations. While the current crisis highlights healthcare disparities today, these vulnerabilities have existed for a long time. The Hunter Foundation for Health Care (HFHC) was the first nonprofit health maintenance organization (HMO) developed in the state of Kentucky in the 1970s. The Foundation was created to address healthcare disparities for indigent populations within specific geographic areas of Lexington. These disparities included a lack of primary-care access, health insurance, and transportation for health services. The HFHC achieved its goals until it ceased operation in 1976.
Utilizing the extensive and unprocessed Hunter Foundation for Health Care Records at the University of Kentucky Special Collections Research Center as a guide, the goal of this project is to develop a novel health care delivery model by using the HFHC as a case-study for comparison. Today, there is inadequate research on identifying the state of indigent citizens with respect to healthcare delivery models. According to the U.S. Census Bureau in 2019, the poverty rate stood at 10.5% and as many as 26.1 million Americans reported not having any form of health insurance. These broad figures reflect an even deeper underlying issue in medium-sized cities, one that does not account for healthcare needs in specific areas facing disproportionate numbers of uninsured or impoverished citizens. In order to better understand these issues, census and geographic data will be used to identify areas in Lexington that lack adequate healthcare resources. This data will assist in demarcating areas of Lexington that face the greatest barriers to accessible and affordable healthcare outcomes. The findings of this model will provide valuable information on equitable healthcare delivery for poor and minority citizens.
