Health Disparities Research
Health disparities are defined as health differences that adversely affect socially disadvantaged populations. This new module is designed to introduce the theory and practice underlying an approach to health disparities research focused on both genetic and socioenvironmental risk factors.
Theoretical background lectures will be paired with practical lab sessions, using Jupyter notebook, R, Python, and various bioinformatics applications to analyze heterogenous biobank data. Students will be provided with a conceptual foundation on how health disparities are defined and characterized, and they will use biobank demographic and electronic health record data to quantify health outcomes and disparities. The module will emphasize genetic ancestry inference as a means to decompose genetic and socioenvironmental contributions to health disparities, covering admixture regression and admixture mapping techniques used to associate ancestry with health outcomes.
Learning Objectives: After attending this module, participants will be able to:
- Understand how health disparities are defined and characterized.
- Understand the conceptual relationships and differences between race, ethnicity, and ancestry.
- Quantify health outcomes and disparities using biobank electronic health record data.
- Model the associations of genetic and socioenvironmental risk factors with health outcomes and disparities.
- Infer genetic ancestry from genomic variant data.
- Model the associations of genetic ancestry with health outcomes and disparities.
Course Dates
- Wed May 29, 1:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. EST
- Thu May 30, 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. EST
- Fri May 31, 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. EST
Instructors
- King Jordan
- Leonardo Mariño-Ramirez
Suggested Course Pairings
Population Genetics Stream
- Module 9: Statistical Genetics
- Module 16: Population Genetics
- Module 20: Molecular Evolution
Course Materials
Visit the Box here
About the Instructors
King Jordan is a Professor in the School of Biological Sciences and Director of the Bioinformatics Research Program at Georgia Tech. His group conduct bioinformatics research with an emphasis on human population genomics and genetic ancestry inference in support of health equity. He is also actively engaged in capacity building for global health in Africa and Latin America. Learn more about King’s work here.
Leonardo Mariño-Ramirez is the Stadtman Investigator in the epidemiology and genetics research branch of the National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD). His group aims to bring state-of-the-art statistical genetic approaches to the linkage between biological and social determinants of health disparities, and to expand participation of minority populations in public health research. Learn more about Leo’s work here.